Jigsaw puzzles from Japan

Temples and gardens of Kyoto

Kyoto is Japan's number one tourist magnet, and not without good reason. All around the city are temples and gardens, a reminder of the power and riches that once belonged to the old capital, now captured by the camera of Mizuno Katsuhiko.

On this page: puzzles - the photographer - about temples and names

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Photographs by Mizuno Katsuhiko

It is a pleasant surprise to find puzzles with a credit to the photographer. Born in Kyoto in 1941, Mizuno earned a degree in literature from Doshisha University in 1964. Since 1969 he has worked as a freelance photographer, in a lifelong quest to capture the essence of Japanese tradition in his native city, and resulting in publication of some one hundred books of his photographs.

Although he has some books published in English, none seems to be in print. (Search ABE for used books)

Temples and names

Most of these names are basically Chinese, so they come out as a string of hard-to-remember syllables. I've added little glosses to the characters (kanji), which should at least be a little more memorable. Take them with a pinch of salt, though. In text I've used characters with circumflex accents (e.g. 'ô') to indicate long vowels; more conventionally these would be macrons as in the blue pronunciation keys.

As usual, I'm writing Japanese names in the original order, so Mizuno is the photographer's family name. (Same as Chinese names, actually, and surely no-one thinks Mao Tse-Tung was "Mr Tung"?) This has always seemed more sensible to me, and recently Japanese practice has swung back this way; at least one of his photo books in English has him as "Mizuno Katsuhiko." Predictably, if you look at the list at ABE half the booksellers have got him backwards.

Other puzzles

• Browse other puzzles featuring temples and gardens.

Deleted puzzles

For reference: you can view all the puzzles of Mizuno's photographs that are out of print in the Attic.