Designed and mad by Minoru Abe, circa 1985.
(cardboard box 5+1/4" x 6.25" x 7/8", 10 wood pieces, blue keeper, and directions)

The directions show three positions, giving rise to three problems:

The following three pages show solution for the three Shimokita problems.

Similar to the Moota-Kun puzzle by the same designer, a tricky solution to start with is made more difficult because it is cumbersome at first to keep track of where pieces need to go when they are portions of a drawing rather than plain colors.

The big piece at the bottom has a nook that makes it natural to perform a capture movement where it slides left or right with another piece in its nook. Here, we limit capture movement to one of the small pieces being carried, where when in the nook the small piece does not extend beyond the bounding rectangle of the big piece.

The following three pages show solutions for the three Shimokita problems where capture movement is allowed. Note, however, that by using move moves, without any capture movement Shimokita 1 -> 3 can be solved in 58 rectilinear moves, Shimokita 1 -> 2 in 55 rectilinear moves, and Shimokita 2 -> 3 in 65 rectilinear moves.

The figures here have piece labels added to match the solutions on the following pages. In all three solutions, the big piece labeled X, stays on the bottom and moves only two times.

For the main 1 -> 3 problem, here are positions 13 and 39 just after each move of X:



For the 1 -> 2 problem, here are positions 23 and 37 just after each move of X:



For the 2 -> 3 problem, here are positions 20 and 46 just after each move of X:

Here is a solution of 51 rectilinear moves (72 straight-line moves):

Here is a solution of 50 rectilinear moves (69 straight-line moves):

Here is a solution of 58 rectilinear moves (81 straight-line moves):