Fukuda’s Underground Piano Illusion

If you look in the mirror to the left you will see the reflection of a piano. If you look to the right, you will see a strange construction made out of piano parts, which cast the reflection of a perfect piano when seen from one special viewpoint. Be sure to visit Shigeo Fukuda’s website where you can watch the “Underground Piano Video” along with many other interesting magic tricks and illusion clips.

36 Replies to “Fukuda’s Underground Piano Illusion”

  1. i8’m sure that the side that is facing the mirror does look like it’s reflection. the pieces must have benn strategiectly placed so that it looked broken on one side, and perfectly fine on the other.

  2. no it is actaully not stratigically placed. it is not even a mirror because there are two pianos. one is broken and the other one is not. if you look at the shadows you’ll see that they are parallel to the ones of the so called illusion piano but in real life our should intersect when seen in a mirror.

  3. jerc

    where do you see parallel shadows? Take a look at the little stool and its refelction in the mirror. If the lines of their shadows were longer, they would eventually meet.

  4. Definitely two piano’s. First the pictures behind the broken piano are not reflected. Second, watch the video, the “mirror” is mounted to a white beam with wheels on the far end, except that when they pan the camera you can see that it is not reflected properly.

  5. One piano, with cleverly place parts. If you watch the movie, you’ll see that there’s a blurred out part. Why blur anything out if it were two pianos? Also, some people are just intent on taking the fun out of life.

  6. I think that the piano on the left it the real one. The one on the right it a piece of scrap. I think they put a fake mirror in the middle. Or it is some parrell trick :)

  7. EVERYONE IS SO PARANOID!!!
    IF THEY SAY THAT IT IS ONLY ONE PIANO THEN IT IS ONLY ONE PIANO!!!
    GET IT!!!
    YOU ARE ALL PARANOID

  8. it is obviousley a window becasue you can see a reflection at the bottom left of the ‘mirror’, which is actaully a window

  9. http://i4.tinypic.com/6xkguv5.jpg
    ^^That’s a screenshot of the illusion i took on my computer & just made a circle on it.. Look at it before you read the rest of this. :]

    Look in the circled part of the picture.. and notice the almost-translucent what looks like a reflection of something on the leg of the put-together piano.. it is impossible for mirrors to have reflections of two different things in the same spot on the mirror on its own. In that case, it would in fact be a window & two different pianos.

    However.. it’s possible that its a two-way mirror. [the ones where if you look on one side, its a mirror, and on the other side its a window.] no matter what.. with those, if you’re looking hard enough through the mirror-side, you WILL barely see some of what is on the other side, especially if its in contrast with what the mirror is reflecting. [the white on the black in this instance.]
    Another scenario is that if the camera used to take this picture used flash, and was focused in on that spot, the light from the flash could have reflected the image of another piece of the broken piano from that angle that the light bounced off of.. and back onto the mirror in that spot.

    In both those cases.. it WOULD be a mirror & only the broken piano & its “fixed reflection” from that one angle.

    :]

  10. Why must people always asume that it is fake?

    “the wall decorations behind the whole piano are not reflected behind the broken one.”

    Notice how you can even see a reflection of the wall decorations in the broken piano itself? It’s just because of the angle that you can’t see the wall decorations on the broken side.

  11. It looks pretty real to me. The petals on the Perfect piano are crooked. and the legs and the middle of the body dont seem to be connected in some weird way. Also.. the Paintings behind the perfect piano… i dont see how they did this.. but the blue painting on the end that makes a point is on the wall of the piano on the left.. but on the broken piano, you can see it in a weird angle turned next to the piano. I have no idea how they accomplished this. It looks genuine though.

  12. I think with the thing about the mirrors, the mirrors just end. I don’t think they are placed along the whole entire wall. That’s why you don’t see the other reflections. But then if you look on the broken piano, it’s about in the middle, you will see the blue item that you see on the wall looking into the mirror. And the shadows do match up. The stools match up, and then if you look a little behind the right stool you see a triangle shaped shadow. Look in the exact same place in the mirror, and you see the exact same shadows.

  13. To me it just looks like 2 rooms one with a perfect piano in it and other room with a broken one in it and the intersection thingy just looks like a glass wall and if someone says it would show relflections u can get camera’s that don’t show reflections :)

    kwl illusion tho :)

  14. This is real!
    I saw it…it is in a museum in Munich Austria….full of weird musical instruments. It really is strategically placed, and reflected through a mirror.

  15. Oh, Monalisa is a fake too. It’s not a real woman, but a face made of paint. Or maybe it’s a mirror reflection of a real woman.

    Fake hunters are true idiots around here. Get the finger out of your noses and realize when you don’t have to hunt anything.

  16. the piano “reflection”, look a the flags. there are 5 flags. but if you look at the distorted one, there is only one flag. also there is a diffrentiate of light.

  17. its simple (to concieve, not simple to actually place the pieces). its like the rooms that are painted and have random lines on every wall…if you stand at a certain lace everything turns into an AMAZING design ;D). tthe piano pieces are placed so that whan you see them from a certain view it will look like a NORMAL piano, but in reality, its a bunch of FLAT or BROKEN peices that are (extremely) cleverly placed.

  18. People!! that is a real mirror and all. look close in the mirror… its not perfect. y\You can see somethings wrong with the piano

  19. Hey, since your talented in so many areas, do you happen to play the piano? I’m really wanting to learn, but don’t know where to start. Any tips or advice?

  20. Yes I do and it’s really simple but it’s even more simple if you get a teacher. And if you already do, then my tip of the day would be….. always sit up straight for good posture(it really helps) keep your finger separate. If you already all that, sorry buddy.

  21. looks like Salvador Dali spoke the language from the other side of the mirror, eh?
    Now I know why abstract modern art that basically looks like some crap sells for Millions!
    Awesome, eh?

  22. If you look at the back you can see that there are paintings in the so called mirror side, but, there are none in the “reality” side, so there is obviously two different pianos

  23. I get an error page when clicking the “Shigeo Fukuda`s website link in the text of the Underground Piano Illusion.
    Thank you for an awsome web site!!!

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