On this page: Box contents - Tenyo website - Identifying Tenyo puzzles - Special orders
Tenyo has been in the puzzle business for almost as long as any company in Japan. They now concentrate almost entirely on Disney puzzles, but have a huge range. For a little more history, see the manufacturers page.
Box contents
In days gone by you opened a jigsaw puzzle box, and inside were just the pieces! But Japanese puzzles come with various extra bits and pieces. The assumption is that you will only do the puzzle once, then glue it together for wall mounting, to impress your friends.
1 Most important - the pieces
2 Missing piece card (details on request)
3 Foil sachet of puzzle glue
4 Cardboard glue spreader
Doing the puzzle
Ignore the strict instructions to do the edge pieces first: put the bits together in any order you like. If you want to display the puzzle, you can use the glue to stick it together. Spread a sheet of clean but unwanted paper under the completed puzzle, with the puzzle the right way up. Then pour the glue over the front of the puzzle: spread it out with the sponge, so all the joints get neatly filled with glue. It should dry with a nice glossy finish.
Disclaimer: I have very limited experience of gluing puzzles - I usually break them up to do again some day. But I have had some success with trompe l'oeil murals!
Please note: Actual box contents may vary slightly - if you find any major discrepancies, please let us know.
Website
Tenyo website: jigsaw puzzle introduction page - main catalog page
The Tenyo site is not easy to navigate. In almost all cases, there is no thumbnail index — so each of the following links leads to a page with a list of titles in Japanese, and you will need to click them one by one to see the puzzles. They are ordered by Japanese title, with different sizes mixed up together. The exception is the thumbnail list of new Disney puzzles which you may find useful: Latest Disney puzzles
Disney puzzles by character
Mickey and Minnie - Mickey and friends - Disney babies - Pooh and friends - Baby Pooh - Alice in Wonderland - Ariel - Snow White - Cinderella - Beauty and the Beast - Princess collection - All characters - Villains - Toy Story - Nightmare before Christmas - Lilo and Stitch - Pirates of the Caribbean - Cars - Ratatouille
Disney puzzles by size
108 pcs - 144 pcs - 200 pcs - 300 pcs - 500 pcs - 500 small pcs - Most difficult (World's most difficult 500 pieces) - 950 panorama - 1000 pcs - 1000 tiny pcs - 2000 pcs - 2000 small pcs - 4000 pcs - Other sizes
Disney: special features and series
Photo frame insert - Glow-in-the-dark - Paper hologram - Calendar puzzles - Crystal hologram - Whimsies (Silhouette pieces) - Fragrance - "Best friends" - "A little encounter" - "Still in my mind" - Metamorphosis of Mickey - "My dear baby" - Tiny pieces (World's smallest ) - Crystal ("Stained art") - Crystal + Small pieces ("Stained art gyutto") - Crystal + Small pieces ("Stained art gyutto" 266 pcs) - "Minnie up!" - Mystic art - World's most difficult - Vivid six ("Vivid magic") - Small pieces ("Gyutto size") - Zzzzz... (dreaming series) - Cork - "Colours of light" - Lumina magic (Glows in the dark with a different picture) - Square pose - Art illusion (Full-colour glow-in-the-dark) - Modern Japanese style - Heart-shaped crystal - Message puzzle
Non-Disney puzzles
Memories of Showa - Ghosts (Hokusai prints) - Rhythm of Salsa - Emi Mariduki (small-piece crystal puzzles) - Kai-kun (captioned dog pictures) - Emi Mariduki (four seasons) - World's most difficult - Art classics - Maurits Cornelis Escher
Icons on puzzle list pages: the website indications of availability are not always reliable, but here they are:
In stock (shown by a shopping cart on the individual puzzle pages)
Out of stock (similar message in red on the individual puzzle pages)
(Updated May 2010)
Identifying Tenyo puzzles
The Disney puzzle shown above has the code D-1000-301: the number after 'D' indicates the number of pieces. Occasionally there is an extra letter, and non-Disney puzzles generally have a 'T' in place of the 'D'. Imaginatorium Shop codes condense these: e.g. the above appears as TD10301.
Note Generally Japanese manufacturers show the exact number of pieces on the box, but the service card inside this puzzle states that although "1000 pieces", there are actually 1014 pieces.
