Hanjie
Also Known As:
CrossPix, Crucipixel, FigurePic, Griddlers, Japanse Puzzels, Logic Art, Logimage, Nemologic, Nonogram, Nonogramm, Nonogramme, Oekaki Mate, Oekaki-Logic, Paint By Numbers, Paint It Black, Pic-A-Pix, Picture Logic, Pixel Puzzles, Tsunami
A Japanese graphics editor called Non Ishida came up with a prize-winning idea to brighten the night-time cityscape of Tokyo, in 1987. By switching certain lights in skyscrapers on or off, he was able to create images on the buildings. He called it Window Art.
At around the same time, a professional Japanese puzzler named Tetsuya Nishio invented a puzzle that worked on a similar principle, called Oekaki-Logic. Puzzles filtered through to several Japanese titles. In 1990, 'The Sunday Telegraph' published Non Ishida's puzzles under the name Nonograms (so-named by the UK supplier James Dalgety, with a nod to Non Ishida).
The enduring popularity of this puzzle outside Japan is largely due to the persistence and enthusiasm of one man, Dave Green. He came across the puzzle on a trip to Tokyo in 1994, began to create his own puzzles with the help of a friend (Igor Lerner) and set up a company to market them.
Puzzler Media began publishing Hanjie in 1999. The name Hanjie is an old Japanese word meaning 'judge picture'.
Instructions
Each puzzle consists of a blank grid with clues to the left of every row and across the top of every column. The object is to reveal a hidden picture by shading blocks in each row and column so their length and sequence correspond to the clues, and there is at least one empty square between adjacent blocks.
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