Jigsaw puzzles from Japan

Fireworks

Feature page for August 2008

Fireworks in Japan have a history of nearly five hundred years, and the summer without them would now be unthinkable. There are large displays across the country, some of them famous - the Sumida-gawa fireworks in Tokyo, or the Nagaoka firework festival near Niigata on the west coast. At the same time, sparklers and other hand-held fireworks continue to delight children of all ages...

This page celebrates the issue by Epoch in summer 2007 of a new series of fireworks photo puzzles (all in small pieces) – and more issued for summer 2008. A slightly unusual subject for a puzzle, this offers some new challenges. I did the 450-piece Nagaoka fireworks puzzle, and it's not the easiest, the colourful streaks of light tending to turn into an abstract mass. But there are extra clues, too: since each line is the path of a body in free fall, it's generally possible to see at a glance which way up a piece goes. (If you want to get technical, each line is a parabola, curving downwards.)

Aside (particularly) to UK readers

"Remember, remember, the fifth of November..."

In my childhood, in England, fireworks were associated with one particular dark cold winter night, Guy Fawkes night, and at first summer fireworks seemed incongruous, like spending Christmas Day on the beach. But of course, even if summer evenings in England were warm enough, they would still be too light! In most of Japan, July evenings are dark by half past seven.