How to solve difficult Japanese crosswords in detail. Japanese crosswords
Not every one of us remembers that there is a fascinating entertainment of Japanese origin in the world, which captured the interest of many inhabitants of the planet back in the 90s. We are talking about Japanese crosswords that had a non-standard type of solution, and also required a certain amount of attention and knowledge of the basic rules for filling them out. At the first glance at such a crossword puzzle, many fell into shock, since it seemed incomprehensible and unsolvable to them, but gradually many began to understand the filling scheme, which made it possible to solve these unusual puzzles and get an unpredictable result in the form of a picture. Gradually, this entertainment began to be forgotten, and now such crossword puzzles can no longer be found in newspapers, books, booklets, as before, but you can find them on the Internet and continue to enjoy them.
But most people still don’t understand how to solve these crossword puzzles, so it’s time to gain new skills and master this technology.
Today you will get acquainted with instructions that will allow you to find the answer to the question of how to solve Japanese crosswords. To make the process easier, we suggest you get to know this type of intellectual entertainment in as much detail as possible.
Types of Japanese crosswords:
- simple Japanese crosswords;
- difficult Japanese crosswords;
- color and black and white Japanese crosswords;
- rare Japanese crosswords.
Japanese crossword solution structure:
- cells undergoing painting;
- cells that exclude the possibility of painting;
- mandatory notes in the margins;
- result of solving.
Simple Japanese crosswords
Simple Japanese crosswords, or as they are also called, Japanese crosswords for beginners, are widely used and have the most recognizable appearance. This is where you should start your little journey of solving these intellectual puzzles.
They usually have small fields (5x5, 8x8, 10x10 squares) and very simple pictures, and are intended mainly for small children. Although adults should also start with them, as they gradually induce the habit of solving and hone the skills of coloring cells, attentiveness and patience.
Difficult Japanese crosswords
Complex Japanese crossword puzzles are intended for professionals who are confident in their abilities, have sharpened attentiveness and are able to look for mistakes on the go. Typically, such crosswords have many fields: 50x50, 100x100, 200x200. To solve this type of puzzle, you need to first gain experience, otherwise it is fraught with many mistakes, nerves and a waste of time. It is also worth learning a simple rule: you should never try to solve a complex crossword puzzle in one day, as this is not at all effective. Stretch the pleasure over several days, and you will definitely achieve a positive result.
Colored and black and white Japanese crosswords
There are two types of Japanese entertainment in the world: color crosswords and black and white. In fact, the question of how to solve Japanese crosswords should not arise here again, since they look almost the same. The main difference is the color of the hint numbers; in the black and white version the numbers are exclusively black, but in the color version the numbers are multi-colored. The logic is simple and clear, the filling process itself is identical to the main one, however, this time you will need colored pencils or colored gel pens. And it will be great luck if you can find a paper version of this puzzle. Since the name “colored Japanese crosswords online” speaks for itself, this type has completely moved to the vastness of the virtual world.
Rare Japanese crosswords
There is another type of crossword - rare. This may be new to you, but right now in Japan, entire scrolls of Japanese crossword puzzles are popular, which imitate masterpieces of painting, for example, “Mona Lisa”, “The Death of Germanicus”, “Napoleon at the Pass” and others. Typically, such canvases have a size of 1000x1000 cells and even 5000x5000, 10000x10000. Alas, such crosswords are very expensive and sometimes take several years to solve. But if you are an ardent fan of these puzzles, then you should definitely buy this kind of Japanese crossword puzzle.
Cells undergoing staining
And now, in fact, it’s worth discussing the instructions. First, you should get acquainted with the fields of the crossword puzzle. They have fields with numbers; these numbers are your main hint for painting. They show how many squares should be shaded in a row (for example, the number 9 indicates that 9 cells should be shaded in a row, and if there are several numbers in the field, for example, 9, 1, 2, this means that in this row you need to paint the cells indented from each other). But there is a catch - there are also empty cells in the row that cannot be painted over. Therefore, at first it is worth looking for fields where there are no unfilled cells; usually this is a number that covers the entire row (vertical or horizontal) of squares. And this will be the first step to your success. Carefully look through all the fields and look for the highest values; it’s easier to start painting with them, and then you can find other cells to paint along the chain.
Cells that exclude the possibility of painting
These cells are your main “enemies” in this graphic puzzle. You should not look for them right away, as they will be revealed gradually, by painting over the exact areas of the puzzle. And it is better to mark the found cells with dots so that they do not cause you doubt. There are no clues about how to calculate these cells; you just have to rely on attention and logic.
Mandatory notes in the margins
Now it’s worth noting that it’s better to always celebrate your achievements. For example, if you correctly identified the cells to be shaded, be sure to cross out the number that you guessed. As mentioned above, you need to mark empty cells (not being painted) with dots or crosses. This approach will allow you to visually navigate and determine the format of the drawing as accurately as possible.
Result of solving
How to solve Japanese crosswords? Now you can answer this question confidently and in detail. The main thing to remember is that absolutely every action you take brings its own result, and already halfway through you will be able to visually understand what exactly you are doing. Every cell, every gap is all part of the overall picture. Whether it's a black and white or color crossword, it will all look great against the backdrop of a former empty field. It is best to solve a Japanese crossword using a simple pencil so that you can erase mistakes or start over, but if you are confident in yourself, then gel pens are the ideal option - the color effect from them is the best.
Japanese crossword games are a complex intellectual puzzle that is not so easy to solve. It all depends on your attention and the correct combination of the information found (carefully consider the position of the shaded cells). Use the drafts, look closely at each field - and you will definitely understand what you need to do to solve it. Our recommendations will help you begin to understand the solution technology, and the best practice would be simple Japanese crosswords. Now you will know exactly how to solve Japanese crosswords. And, perhaps, in the future you will be able to solve complex versions of these puzzles. These instructions are suitable for solving paper crossword puzzles, as well as for solving crosswords online (this includes Japanese crosswords in Odnoklassniki).
Learning to solve Japanese crosswords. As usual with examples, because In my opinion, this is more clear. There will also be comments on the drawings - why this is so.
Solving rules: the number is the number of shaded cells in a row or column.
If there is only one number 8 in a line, then in this line somewhere you need to paint 8 cells sequentially without spaces.
If there are several numbers in a line, for example: 3, 2, 1, then in this order they will appear in the line, however, there must be at least 1 space between adjacent numbers (maybe 2 or more).
We have the right to paint over a cell only if it is unambiguous decision, i.e. Otherwise it just won't fit.
And now let’s get closer to examples so that this can be better understood.
I suggest starting to solve the Japanese crossword with the largest numbers, because... this is the simplest. Our largest is 9, which means we’ll start with it (take any).
Let's count 9 cells from the left edge of nine - I have highlighted this in color.
Now let’s do the same thing, only from the opposite edge - count 9 cells:
And now about why we are doing this. Because Since we no longer have any numbers in the line starting with 9, only 9 cells can be painted in it, and consecutively without breaks. (there is one number 9 opposite the line).
Our line is 14 cells long. Therefore, we measure out our nine - to the minimum, i.e. from the very beginning and to the maximum - from the very end. All in order to find the intersection. I painted the intersection with black, because no matter how you paint 9 cells sequentially, 4 of them will always be painted (remember, there are 14 cells in total).
After we have colored the first 4 cells of the row, let's take a look at the columns, because the cells in the rows and columns intersect. I have highlighted the column numbers that match the shaded cells from the row.
What does it mean to write 1 1 2 1 1 in a row or column? This means that in this column/row there will be 1 shaded cell, then the gap is not shaded (I will denote it “ X") then again 1 filled cell, then again an unfilled space, then 2 cells in a row filled, etc.
An example of a possible (but not a fact!) filling out column No. 6:
It is important to understand from this that we can only paint over what is painted over. definitely(same as 4 cells above). But we also remember that at least 1 space must be between different numbers to be filled in. Those. After the units we have selected, there will be at least 1 space in the columns - let’s mark these spaces:
Now let's speed up a little - take the second nine, mark its minimum and maximum, paint over the intersection with black, etc. we have ones in the lines - put at least one space (x) for them.
As you can see, the intersection at the 8th gives us only one shaded cell.
But if you look at line 1 1 (8th line) - there are only 2 cells that should be painted black.
But we already have 2 cells painted black in this line - one at the beginning, the other at the end, which means we fill all the other cells with spaces (x).
Let's look at the fives in the columns - let me remind you that in the columns the numbers are painted from top to bottom in order, and in the rows from left to right. As we can see, a minimum of 1 space is maintained between the one and the five of the column.
Well, let's finish our study here. I really hope that you understand the essence of solving Japanese crosswords.
From the comments I see that not everyone understood the meaning, so I suggest you also watch the video, perhaps it will be more clear. Video for the very entry level..
Real Japanese crosswords must satisfy the following rules:
- The crossword puzzle has a single logical solution;
- There are no zeros in the information fields;
- The crossword grid has only a horizontal and vertical number of cells that are a multiple of five (for example: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, ..);
- The image is not symmetrical and contains an easily readable image.
Solving black and white crossword puzzles
How to solve Japanese crosswords?
Two simple rules for successfully solving a Japanese crossword:
- The order of numbers is: bottom to top and left to right. That is, if there is a number 3 in a column, and 1 above it, then this means that you need to color (somewhere) 3 cells below, and 1 cell above them in this column. The same applies to strings.
- Between the shaded cells there must be at least one unshaded cell.
At the first stage, we look for those rows and columns in which the number of cells to be painted will be maximum. The next step will be to identify those rows and columns where the number of cells to be painted will be more than half of the entire column or row.
In these rows or columns we will find those cells that will be painted in any case, regardless of which side the field to be painted begins on. After this, you can already identify those cells that will definitely not be painted over. They must be marked with some kind of icon, for example, a cross or a dot. Then logical reasoning comes into play, with the help of which we bring the solution to the crossword puzzle to the end. In the process of solving a crossword puzzle, the described moves can be repeated several times.
As soon as any cells have been colored, the number that belongs to these cells must be crossed out so as not to get confused (especially on huge crossword puzzles).
An example of solving a small crossword puzzle:
| 1 We have the original Japanese crossword puzzle. For simplicity, its dimensions are 5x5 cells. | 2 Let's pay attention to large numbers. At the top is the number 5. Since there are 5 cells in the column, the entire column can be painted over. |
| 3 On the left there is also the number 5. Let’s fill in the entire fourth line from the top of the crossword puzzle. Don't forget to cross out the numbers you worked out. | 4 We found the number 3 on the left. We see that the rightmost cell of the line is painted over, then we paint over the 2 adjacent ones, and mark the rest as empty. |
| 5 Columns 3 and 4 have two single cells. And they are already painted over, which means we mark the remaining cells as empty. And cross out the numbers. | 6 The second column has a filled cell and 2 empty ones above. The painted cells do not touch, which means we paint the cell from the second row. |
| 7 We automatically received a ready-made second line, and in the third - the only option. Let's paint this cell too. | 8 The last step is to paint the last cell. Cross out the three from the first column and two ones from the fifth line. Crossword solved! |
As a result of solving the crossword puzzle, we got the image of the letter “A”. This is a simple crossword puzzle, but there are huge crossword puzzles that require a lot of practice to solve successfully.
Solving color crosswords
Color crosswords are solved according to the same principle as black and white ones. The difference is as follows: between different-colored groups of cells, there may be no separating (empty) cells.This article talked about how to solve Japanese crosswords.
The most important rule when solving black and white Japanese crosswords is that between blocks of colored cells there must be at least one unshaded cell!
Japanese crossword, original form:
The numbers on the left and above correspond to the number of shaded blocks on the playing field, while the order of the numbers corresponds to the order of the shaded cells: for rows - from left to right, for columns - from top to bottom. For example, let’s take the first line from the top, we see two numbers: 5 and 4 - this means that in the first line there are two shaded blocks, while the first one on the left is a block of 5 cells, and then 4 cells and between these two blocks, according to the main rule, it is located at least one unshaded cell! Now let's look at the first column, there is only one number here: 5, that is, in the first column there is only one shaded block per 5 cells! If there are several numbers in a column, then the order of the shaded blocks is from top to bottom.
Japanese crossword. Example solution
Step 1. We are looking for cells that we can paint over with 100% confidence. First of all, the last 2 lines with the numbers 30 catch your eye, so we will paint over them all.
Step 2. Now let's look at the numbers above. Since we shaded the last 2 lines, we will be interested in the last numbers in each column. We can safely take the last digit in each column (since we have shaded fields on the border and we have only one option in which direction to shade next).
Game cells marked with red crosses are 100% empty cells. As you can see from the figure, we have completely painted over the last 4 lines (from 12 to 15) and our next step will be to paint the 11th line, in the same way along the extreme numbers. That is, as we see in line 11 we have 2 numbers 7 and 6, and on the playing field there are already 2 blocks located on the borders. The result is shown in the figure below:
Step 3. Having carefully looked at our black and white Japanese crossword puzzle, we will continue to paint over the cells 100% located on the field. This way we can start coloring the 25th column, as we see, it should contain 2 blocks (2 and 2), one block is already painted, and the second block has a 100% empty cell on one side (marked with a red cross). I would also like to draw your attention to line 19 with numbers 8 and 2, number 2 is crossed out (already drawn) and for number 8 we have 10 unknown cells left (white), so we can also paint over the part of the block corresponding to number 8.
Let's take a closer look at how we painted these 6 cells in the 19th column. And why exactly 6 cells and not 8?
In the picture on the left you see the column that interests us: at the very bottom there are 5 filled cells (10-15 lines) for the previous steps (3 exactly empty and 2 filled). We also have 2 additional colored cells in the middle of the empty playing field (line 3 and line 8). How did we get them? The answer is simple. For the number 8, we had a range of 10 cells left (from line 1 to line 10 inclusive), of which only 8 should be painted in. First of all, we measure from the top border (line 1) the 8 cells we need and paint it, then from the bottom border (line 10) subtract 8 cells, we get line 3. Those cells that are between these two cells are 100% filled cells!
Step 4. Our further actions will be similar to those in the previous steps, we will paint over the cells with 100% probability that are on the field and we will start from line 10! Here's what we got:
Step 5. As you can see, we have almost finished our black and white Japanese crossword puzzle. But we're only done with the easiest part of it. Let's look now at what we should do next. We can ignore columns 7 to 14, because the remaining numbers are too small for the remaining playing range. But in columns 15, 16 and 17 we can color in some cells. If everything is clear with column 17 (by analogy with number 8 from the previous step, only in this case we have number 3), then we will consider lines 15 and 16 in more detail. The remaining numbers are 1 and 2 for a playing range of 5 cells; it is also necessary to take into account that between two blocks there must be at least 1 unfilled cell.
a) Let’s make the assumption that the first colored block (number 1) is located right at the border, as can be seen in the figure on the left (don’t forget also about the empty cell between the two blocks)
b) And thus we have 3 empty cells left for number 2, we already know what to do next (by analogy with numbers 3 and 8).
Now you need to remove the shaded cell from step “a”, because it may not be on the border. Our final range should look like the figure on the right.
We analyze other rows and columns in the same way, and this is what we should get after analyzing the columns: 
And here’s what happens after the same string analysis: 
Step 6. Let's look at column 23. We have numbers 1 and 2, there are 4 cells on the playing field, 1 of which is definitely empty, the second is definitely filled in. The one that is painted over is the beginning of a block of 2 cells, because if we give it to number 1, then we will have no room left for number 2. Accordingly, there remains one empty cell and the number 1 for it.
Consider line 4. We have 2 filled blocks (2 cells and 1 cell) between which there is exactly an empty cell. Our numbers on this line are 2,1,2. Using logic and knowledge, we can say for sure that the first colored block of 2 cells corresponds to the first number 2, the second block of 1 cell corresponds to the number 1 and, as a result, we will have 4 empty cells left on this line (of which we will color one from previous sentence, after considering column 23), to the last digit - 2. This is what we get: 
The further solution to Japanese crosswaters is to repeat the same steps as in the previous steps.
Japanese crossword, final image: 
