Last chance - puzzles from Imaginatorium Shop

Last chance!

The puzzles on this page are ones that will not be available once our stock is gone, and we have just one of each left... so hurry!

Please note: because a puzzle is not on this page is not a guarantee of indefinite availability. We do not always know when puzzles will be deleted by the manufacturer.

There are 14 puzzles low...

1000 pieces

Mashûko

Mashûko - or Lake Mashu if you prefer - is a deep (140 m) caldera lake, with some of the clearest water in the world. What most of the guide books fail to mention is that this beautiful view is rather rare; when I went there, we saw nothing but thick cloud, above, below, and all around.

The wild orange lilies in the foreground are a common feature of the Japanese summer landscape.

In stock
An Appleone puzzle: 1000 pieces; 75 x 50 cm (30" x 20")
Code: A10297 (1000-297 on box)
Retail price ¥2400 (approx. US$23.53 €15.19 £11.94)
Shipping from ¥1100 (N. America, Europe, Australasia: approx. US$10.78 €6.96 £5.47)
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Ryôan-ji (Mizuno)

Autumn leaves form a canopy over the paved approach to Ryôanji, the temple founded in 1450 which is the home of the famous raked pebble garden.

What does the name mean?

dragon

repose

temple

Born in Kyoto in 1941, Mizuno Katsuhiko earned a degree in literature from Doshisha University in 1964. Since 1969 he has worked as a freelance photographer, in a lifelong quest to capture the essence of Japanese tradition in his native city, and resulting in publication of some one hundred books of his photographs.

In stock
An Appleone puzzle: 1000 pieces; 75 x 50 cm (30" x 20")
Code: A10349 (1000-349 on box)
Retail price ¥2500 (approx. US$24.51 €15.82 £12.44)
Shipping from ¥1100 (N. America, Europe, Australasia: approx. US$10.78 €6.96 £5.47)
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Dainichi Nyorai (Kaname)

Painted for 2003, the year of the sheep, this lucky puzzle also features Dainichi Nyorai, one of the most senior embodiments of Buddahood. Despite a rather feminine appearance, it seems Buddha is not explicitly male or female. Notice the hands in a significant gesture: the five fingers of the right hand (five worldly elements) unified with the one from the left hand (spiritual consciousness).

Mark Schumacher's page has an excellent explanation.

The painter Ozuma Kaname was born in 1939, in Niigata. He studied traditional Japanese art, and his pictures are generally based on traditional themes.

Ozuma is his family name: he signs paintings with the single character of his given name only.

In stock
An Appleone puzzle: 1000 pieces; 50 x 75 cm (20" x 30")
Code: A10400 (1000-400 on box)
Retail price ¥3600 (approx. US$35.29 €22.78 £17.91)
Shipping from ¥1100 (N. America, Europe, Australasia: approx. US$10.78 €6.96 £5.47)
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Moon and five monkeys (Kaname)

Under a full moon, five monkeys (a family?) play in a cherry tree. Apart from 2004 being the Year of the Monkey, what significance does this have? It's a play on words: the characters for "five monkeys" can be read go-en, which could also mean "Good fortune", or refer to the presence of an honourable guest. Well, by tradition this is deemed to be a Good Title.

The painter Ozuma Kaname was born in 1939, in Niigata. He studied traditional Japanese art, and his pictures are generally based on traditional themes.

Ozuma is his family name: he signs paintings with the single character of his given name only.

In stock
An Appleone puzzle: 1000 pieces; 75 x 50 cm (30" x 20")
Code: A10428 (1000-428 on box)
Retail price ¥3600 (approx. US$35.29 €22.78 £17.91)
Shipping from ¥1100 (N. America, Europe, Australasia: approx. US$10.78 €6.96 £5.47)
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Hokkaido sunflowers

Hokkaidô, the northernmost large island of Japan, is typified by gentle landscapes that give it a much more "European" feel than the other islands. Vincent van Gogh would surely have felt at home in this field of sunflowers, outside the town of Biei.

The official Biei town website (in Japanese)

In stock
A Beverly puzzle: 1000 pieces; 72 x 49 cm (28" x 19")
Code: B100121 (100-121 on box)
Retail price ¥1980 (approx. US$19.41 €12.53 £9.85)
Shipping from ¥1100 (N. America, Europe, Australasia: approx. US$10.78 €6.96 £5.47)
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Shirakawa - late autumn

Late autumn, and ripening persimmons: another of the gasshôzukuri houses, named after a supposed resemblance between the roof and hands at prayer. These were built to house extended families of up to forty people.

Randy Johnson's travel notes on Shirakawa-go

In stock
An Epoch puzzle: 1000 pieces; 75 x 50 cm (30" x 20")
Code: E10500 (10-500S on box)
Normally ¥2500 - special offer 40% off: ¥1500 (approx. US$14.71 €9.49 £7.46)
Shipping from ¥1000 (N. America, Europe, Australasia: approx. US$9.80 €6.33 £4.98)
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Massed azaleas (Osaka)

Azaleas bloom in profusion in this park in Misaki, just south of Osaka. Puzzles like this are never too easy, but there is plenty of variation in colour: white, variegated pink, and deeper shades of red.

In stock
An Epoch puzzle: 1000 pieces; 75 x 50 cm (30" x 20")
Code: E10585 (10-585 on box)
Retail price ¥2500 (approx. US$24.51 €15.82 £12.44)
Shipping from ¥1200 (N. America, Europe, Australasia: approx. US$11.76 €7.59 £5.97)
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The garden of the four seasons (Haruyo)

Here we see the four ladies, representing the seasons, gathered together in a lawn party somehow reminiscent of a scene from the French impressionists. One dances with a fan, another accompanying her on the koto; a third reads, while the fourth is content to watch.

The artist Morita Haruyo studied both Japanese art and kimono design, and she combines these with elements of her own Western-influenced technique. (She travelled to London in 1977, exactly the year I [Brian Chandler] first came to Tokyo.)

Morita is her family name: she follows the tradition of signing - and sealing - paintings with her given name only.

In stock
An Epoch puzzle: 1000 pieces; 75 x 50 cm (30" x 20")
Code: E11121 (11-121 on box)
Retail price ¥3000 (approx. US$29.41 €18.99 £14.93)
Shipping from ¥1200 (N. America, Europe, Australasia: approx. US$11.76 €7.59 £5.97)
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Year of the boar (Seikaku)

A family of wild boar grouped contentedly, and surrounded by all the usual symbols of good fortune, and of course Mount Fuji towering in the distance.

No biographical details, but the artist Mori Seikaku specialises in animal and flower scroll paintings. He signs his work the traditional way, with the characters for his given (brush) name, Seikaku (lit. 'nest of the crane') and a seal of the same.

In stock
An Epoch puzzle: 1000 pieces; 75 x 50 cm (30" x 20")
Code: E11184 (11-184 on box)
Retail price ¥3000 (approx. US$29.41 €18.99 £14.93)
Shipping from ¥1200 (N. America, Europe, Australasia: approx. US$11.76 €7.59 £5.97)
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Day and night (Escher)

This is a woodcut, created in 1938, and showing Escher's combination of geometrical imagination and and naturalistic drawing technique. From the abstract pattern in the centre, white birds fly right into night, and black ones left into day, while metamorphosing down into the chessboard pattern of fields in the Dutch landscape.

Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) was a Dutch artist, who produced many well-known images of mathematical fantasies, though he had no formal training in mathematics. Animals and birds metamorphose into geometrical shapes and back again - buildings follow geometrical rules, yet defy reality.

In stock
A Tenyo puzzle: 1000 pieces; 42 x 30 cm (17" x 12")
Code: TW10793 (TW-1000-793 on box)
Retail price ¥1800 (approx. US$17.65 €11.39 £8.96)
Shipping from ¥500 (N. America, Europe, Australasia: approx. US$4.90 €3.16 £2.49)
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Spring breeze (Tohikazu)

Petals flutter down like snowflakes, in this painting of a rural scene in Miyagi, northern Japan (we're not given the precise location).

The painter Kaneko Tohikazu has a style of unassuming simplicity, yet contrives to include all the classic elements of the Japanese rural scene. He is known as a "painter of thatch roofs", but also faithfully reproduces the gently disorganised scattering of outhouses with their galvanised iron coverings. An array of familiar trees and shrubs, and the retaining walls of piled rocks fringe the paddy fields - mostly dry from the winter, but water from the conduit in the foreground has flooded one small area, as if by accident.

In stock
A Yanoman puzzle: 1000 pieces; 75 x 50 cm (30" x 20")
Code: Y10939 (10-939 on box)
Retail price ¥2500 (approx. US$24.51 €15.82 £12.44)
Shipping from ¥1000 (N. America, Europe, Australasia: approx. US$9.80 €6.33 £4.98)
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The day of the fair (Uchida)

Original title: Matsuri no hi - "Golden memories of a garden, where we sat by the morning glories, eating watermelon" reads (my loose translation of) the poem on the box.

Many of Uchida's images of Japan are very nostalgic, and this is no exception. An entrance to a house, framed by trellises, has fresh watermelons and a basket of vegetables laid out on the engawa, the outer passageway, and we gaze past them, into tatami-floored rooms, and beyond.

This puzzle has a luxury "Cloth touch" finish.

Uchida was born in 1960 in Kyushu, and after a degree in fine arts from Aichi University of Education, became hooked on lone travelling. From there he was drawn into sketching, getting his first magazine publication in 1988. Since then he has kept travelling the world, and produced a whole series of book publications. Having spent three years in Perth, from 1991 to 1994, he regards Australia as his second home, but has also visited many parts of Europe and America.

Note that he writes his name in the "Western" order; Uchida is his family name.

In stock
A Yanoman puzzle: 1000 pieces; 75 x 50 cm (30" x 20")
Code: Y10955 (10-955 on box)
Retail price ¥3000 (approx. US$29.41 €18.99 £14.93)
Shipping from ¥1200 (N. America, Europe, Australasia: approx. US$11.76 €7.59 £5.97)
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500 pieces

Otani Oniji (Sharaku)

The actor Otani Oniji strikes an intense pose in the role of Yakko Edobei. A classic Sharaku kabuki portrait.

Interesting description of how ukiyo-e were made

It seems very little of certainty is known about Sharaku (this is his given name, though it is very likely no-one's real name; his family name, Tôshûsai, is rarely used at all). His works, caricatures of kabuki artists, appeared over the space of less than a year from mid-1794, and then he totally disappeared. Theories abound!

This puzzle has a luxury "Cloth touch" finish.

In stock
A Yanoman puzzle: 500 pieces; 38 x 53 cm (15" x 21")
Code: Y05765 (05-765 on box)
Retail price ¥2000 (approx. US$19.61 €12.66 £9.95)
Shipping from ¥600 (N. America, Europe, Australasia: approx. US$5.88 €3.80 £2.99)
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300 pieces

Mt. Fuji and Shinjuku skyscrapers

A different view! Fuji seen behind the skyscrapers of the Shinjuku district of Tokyo.

As Mount Olympus was the home of the Greek gods, so Mt. Fuji (3776 metres above sea level) has its place as the symbol of Japan. Although most popular tourist pictures show the view from the south, with the bullet train passing below Mount Fuji, the best views are from the north and east sides.

In stock
An Epoch puzzle: 300 pieces; 38 x 26 cm (15" x 10")
Code: E25063 (25-063S on box)
Retail price ¥1200 (approx. US$11.76 €7.59 £5.97)
Shipping from ¥500 (N. America, Europe, Australasia: approx. US$4.90 €3.16 £2.49)
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