Yosegi Himitsu Bako/ Japanese Puzzle Boxes are traditional Japanese trick or secret compartment boxes that are hand crafted.
They originated in Japan's culturally rich Edo Period. The surface of the box is covered with Yosegi, traditional Japanese wooden mosaics.
Nearly a lost art, they boxes are constructed in two parts. The trick box - which requires multiple steps of moving sliding panels in a specific order in order to open the box and find it’s scream compartment opening and the second part is creating the fine mosaic (called Yosegi) of natural (no dyes or stains are used - the colors reflect different species of trees) wood inlay that covers the surface of the box.
Please note that as handmade objects, each box will vary in the signs and colors that cover its surface. The box you receive will be similar but different from the ones actually pictured. Fairly traded.
please also note that the coin box is a trick box - you open it, place a coin in the slot and close it and the coin disappears. It cannot be opened like the other boxes. The bank box has a slot for inserting coins but to access the coins you have to open the box as the others.