Japanese puzzle box «27 Step» · panda marquetry

A Japanese puzzle box — himitsu-bako — with an inlaid panda with bamboo on the lid. Opening it takes 27 sliding moves in the right order. Box and certificate are included.

The boxes from Hakone start at four moves for children; anything above twenty is collector class. At 27 moves nothing opens by trial and error — you slide lid strips, side panels and bases in a fixed sequence, and one mistake early on blocks everything after it. Without knowing the order, you cannot open the box without destroying it.

The panda is not painted but inlaid: every area — black fur, white belly, green bamboo, brown stem — is its own piece of wood in its own colour, fitted exactly. The maker's mark sits at the lower right. The sides carry the classic yosegi pattern, that fine mosaic of glued wooden rods for which Hakone is known.

• Himitsu-bako, Japanese puzzle box
• 27 moves to reach the compartment
• Panda inlay on the lid, signed
• Yosegi mosaic on the sides
• Original box and certificate included
• Inner compartment for small things

Very good. All sliding parts run easily without binding, the wood is intact, the inlay complete and gapless. Box and certificate are present; the carton edges show light storage wear. Wood swells in damp — keep the box somewhere dry, or the 27 moves become hard work.