Wow! What a puzzle! This was found in a box of older IPP exchange puzzles. It was probably made during the early 1990's but we can't be sure as we don't read Japanese. On one side there is a standard edge matching puzzle with some child-like cartoon animals. On the other side is the 8 queens puzzle that George wrote about last week. Either puzzle is quite difficult.
After scratching my head over this for a few days, asked George if this puzzle could be put into a solution on both sides. Sadly, the answer is no. One side at a time only.
My next question was can it be made using additional colors so that no square is without a colored circle and still be solved. Again, Burrtools came up with a definitive no.
Again, thanks to Rob, we now have an additional link that gives some information on this puzzle. Sadly, it's in French. "There is another solution to the superposition of six sets of eight queens each on an 8x8 board, published by Lucas (inventor of the Towers of Hanoi problem) in his 1895 book, on page 232: https://archive.org/.../larithmetiquea.../page/n231/mode/2up".
As a bit of background, edge matching puzzles were invented by E. L. Thurston in 1892. A copy of his original patent can be found here. They are puzzles which have an edge color, image, number, etc. that must match the adjacent piece. A very detailed explanatory article can be found here. These are readily available in stores everywhere. Puzzlemaster sells the scrambled squares puzzles for a relatively low price. They can also be found on many other online sellers. As for me, I've spent the past few weeks solving this type of puzzle and have decided they just aren't for me. I eagerly await George's Burr Tools program so I can put the rest of the unfinished puzzles on the walls.
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