Golden Week!
The first week of May brings the curiously scattered holidays known as "Golden Week". This year the official holidays are Tuesday to Thursday, May 3-4-5. So we can actually ship puzzles on Monday or Friday, but in practice there will be disruption until the week beginning May 9.
Covid-19: Shop status
We are accepting orders again, but with very limited shipping options, which we have to handle manually. Please use the checkout form to request puzzles, and we will get back to you when we can. Please see the front page for more details.
© Fujishiro Seiji
A lone elfin cellist sits in the moonbeam...
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A rather more sombre scene than usual — the atom bomb dome in Hiroshima is a reminder to some of the appalling things that happened in the last century. As always, though, Fujishiro adds playful touches: as a thousand cranes symbolise peace, we can imagine the piper is piping a jolly tune...
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Keroyon is the frog's name, because Japanese frogs say kero-kero instead of "ribbit" or similar. Anyway, a jolly outing...
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© Seiji Fujishiro
The port of Genoa, with castles, old ships with the English flag, and some other ships, and some other flags. Who knows quite what is going on... but perhaps that is the point?!
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Essential for getting through the severe winters of Japan's mountainous regions, the kotatsu is a kind of heated table, with a quilt to contain the feet. It's not surprising that the cats love it!
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A very musical paradise! The chorus of pipers is supported by a number of pianos and harps scattered among the trees.
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© Fujishiro Seiji
There's a northern European feel to this town, but of course the story told is pure Fujishiro fantasy...
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 This is a glow-in-the-dark puzzle.
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This is a glow-in-the-dark puzzle.
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The white piano has four (playerless) double basses one side, and four unicycles the other, plus rocking horses in the sky and all the usual Fujishiro fun...
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© Fujishiro Seiji
These are a special type of hand-held firework, a gentle sparkler that emits a fine tracery of orange sparks...
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© Fujishiro Seiji
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Perhaps the Russian Romantics? The pianos are all decorated with the onion towers that are a symbol of a Czarist past...
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© Fujishiro Seiji
Windmills among the lavender fields...
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© Fujishiro Seiji
Ponies leave the nest in a huge tree; could the modern buildings in the background be a school?
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© Fujishiro Seiji
A cocktail glass and a bottle of champagne, and a cellist to complete the whimsy...
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Fujishiro Seiji
Born in 1924, Fujishiro has had a long and productive career as an illustrator - producing many children's books, and creating his own brand of fantasy along the way. From an early involvement with shadow puppetry, he developed his own unique style: he calls these kage-e (literally "shadow pictures"), but his is a backlit world not of black and white (or grey), but of wonderful translucent colours, apparently made mostly from tissue paper.
As of January 2020, he is still active in his nineties, and his work has appeared all over the world.
News item from February 2005
Here's a review of his show at the Japan Information and Culture Center in Washington DC: "Symphony of Light and Shadow" (from the Washington Post).
Note: The translations of titles are mine.
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