Japanese Himitsu-Bako puzzle box found in Midget Submarine: Robert Judge, Garden Island

Japanese inlaid rectangular wooden puzzle or secret box, featuring an interwoven geometric Yosegi pattern on all four sides and on the face of the hidden drawer; a traditional coloured inlaid scene of Mount Fuji with boat and house on the sliding cover; and a pink rose and bird design on the base and on the sliding lid of the hidden drawer, all using veneer wood. The lid is removed by sliding the top half of the proper right side panel, which releases it. This reveals a box, half the depth of the whole. Pulling up the proper left side panel reveals a sliding drawer fitted with sliding lid nestled in the lower half of the box. The drawer does not fully slide from the box. The drawer face is equipped with a small round orange celluloid handle.

Traditional Japanese puzzle box, possibly produced in the town of Hakone, and featuring an exterior design known as Yosegi – a series of intricate geometric glued veneer designs. In Japan these boxes are known as ‘Himitsu-Bako’ or ‘Secret Box’. The design on the lid is reminiscent of a woodblock print design and, as with many examples, features a scene of Mount Fujiyama with Lake Ashino in the foreground. There are five movements required to fully open the box. Some boxes were far more complex and might need up to 100 movements to open them. This example was discovered by a civilian boilermaker, Robert Judge in one of the Japanese midget submarines which was recovered from Sydney Harbour after the attack of the night of 30-31 May 1942. Judge was specifically employed at Garden Island, Sydney to cut open the submarines with an oxy-acetylene torch. He noticed this box as he entered the interior of the submarine, secretly removed it, and retained it as a keepsake. He was also asked to assist in removing the bodies from the submarine, and later welded his initials onto the nose of one of the subs.