Dear MMDers,  On September 18th, 2005, the final exam of the
International Karakuri Contest was held at the Expo Hall in Expo 2005
in Nagoya city, Aichi prefecture, Japan.  Seven foreign contestants
competed with seventeen Japanese contestants in the classic category,
and five foreign contestants competed with three Japanese in the modern
category.

Since every work was demonstrated with a lot of fun, and some of them
have very creative ideas and some of them have superior techniques,
so the audiences enjoyed them very much and judges took a long time to
decide the prize winners.

The result of the final exam and the prize winners of foreign
contestants are as follows:

Grand Prix (1,000,000 yen):
  Japanese (the contestant of the classic category)
Best Classic Karakuri (500,000 yen):
  Japanese
Best Modern Karakuri (500,000 yen):
  Philipp Strasser (Germany)
Special Prize (100,000 yen):
  Francois Junod (Switzerland)
  Walter Dahler (Switzerland)
  Wolfgang Brommer (Germany)
  Neil Hardy (United Kingdom)

Also, six Japanese got the special prize.

The performance of the karakuri getting the Grand Prix is -- A small
Japanese Samurai on the running horse (its legs moves as real horse)
takes the arrow in the holder beside the saddle, fixes it to the bow,
draws the bow, aims the target along his way, shoots and hits the
target.

The samurai uses three arrows; they hit three target stands on the side
way perfectly and the target boards fall to the ground dramatically.
The horse holds on the rail set on the long rectangular box and the
spring mechanism is wound by the maker pulling up the rope in the end
of the box.  The maker is the retired engineer of an automobile
company.

You can see the works getting the prizes at the following web site:
  http://www.karakuri2005.com/jp/karakuri/data/g01_01.html 

I am also sending some photos of the Contest, which I snapped at the
Expo Hall, to the MMD gallery.  The Contest was successful with the
contributions of the MMD and MMDers.  Again, I appreciate very much
your effort.

With very best wishes,
Kazuo Murakami
Otsu-city, Shiga prefecture, Japan

 [ Thanks, Kazuo, I'll place the photos at the MMD Pictures site,
 [ http://mmd.foxtail.com/Pictures/ 
 [ More photos are displayed at
 [ http://www.karakuri2005.com/jp/karakuri/data/e01_01.html