alt.hn

4/25/2026 at 5:21:22 PM

Hokusai and Tesselations

 https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1899550/1/11/

by srean

4/25/2026 at 5:38:26 PM

Escher invoking Hokusai in his sixties

"Ideally I would spend a whole year on a freighter watching the waves. If God himself, in honour of my 60th birthday, would give me the strength and the power and the glory, now and forever, to draw a beautiful wave. But no, nothing like that. As soon as I got home I tried it, to no avail. I started spirals instead. That at least gave me something to go on. Drawing waves—those apparently shapeless, chaotic glories—is something I will have to leave to you and your (almost ex-)compatriots."

https://escherinhetpaleis.nl/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fp...

by srean

4/25/2026 at 7:32:51 PM

Found a copy of the book on Wikimedia. It was originaly published as a pattern book for kimono textile, then rediscovered in 1986 in a collection at the Boston Museum. Since then art historians in Japan found further prints.

北斎模様画譜 (1884) - Hokusai Pattern Book - https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3ANDL85...

by lioeters

4/25/2026 at 11:54:56 PM

You can download a full resolution pdf of the book at the original posts’s link, which is much better quality than the one on Wikimedia.

I used safari’s built in translate feature to translate the page from Japanese to English, scroll down for download options.

by mrkpdl

4/27/2026 at 12:00:59 AM

There's an ongoing debate as to whether the Alhambra features all 17 plane symmetry groups. It would be interesting to see whether Hokusai did.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallpaper_group

by fmajid

4/25/2026 at 6:27:26 PM

Is there a way for non-Japanese speakers to experience this?

by p1anecrazy

4/25/2026 at 6:39:58 PM

It's mostly pictures and not much text, except for the initial popup you see which is the usual cookie consent prompt (left button = minimum required, right button = agree to all). But looks like British Museum also has this book if you want an English interface:

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1973-0723-...

If you are asking about the text written on the pages themselves, it takes a bit more effort unless you are familiar with archaic script. I can make out some of them as guidelines on how to draw the patterns.

by omoikane

4/26/2026 at 10:23:43 AM

If it makes you feel better, the vast majority of modern day Japanese speakers cannot read this either.

It is cursive script, and only specialized academics/people with extensive training in calligraphy/etc. would know how to read it.

Interestingly enough this is an area where machine learning has been extremely effective:

https://arxiv.org/abs/1910.09433

by gyomu

4/25/2026 at 7:51:45 PM

There is a i18n “English” button on top right. Unless you meant something else.

by srik

4/25/2026 at 6:30:13 PM

I used google translate.

by srean

4/25/2026 at 7:23:49 PM

[dead]

by 334t45

4/25/2026 at 7:05:49 PM

[dead]

by l4tq3