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Hokusai Moyo Gafu: an album of dyeing patterns

by fanf2 on 6/9/25, 2:42 PM with 14 comments

• by srean on 6/9/25, 2:59 PM

  I never knew Hokusai had interest in these.

  Does anyone know if he had seen any Islamic tiling art ? Or for that matter if Escher had seen any of his.

  Group theory / symmetry runs deep through these. One [0] of the circular ones made me think of braid(group)s. Not sure what the * operator would be in that case.

  Speaking of braid groups Richeson had a very interesting blog post on the braid like groups of maypole dances.

  Let me find and submit separately (spoiling a Hokusai story with another story, no matter how interesting, would be a personal sacrilege). Found it [1][2].

  [0] https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1899550/1/10/

  [1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44225324

  [2]https://divisbyzero.com/2009/05/04/the-maypole-braid-group/

• by PaulHoule on 6/9/25, 3:24 PM

  The Metropolitan Museum has books of fabric samples for kimonos with colorful and complex patterns but unfortunately I could only find pictures of kimonos:

  https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/354838

  https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search?q=kimono+jap...

  People had kimonos with crazy prints throughout the Heian, warring states and Tokugawa periods.

• by ossicones on 6/9/25, 4:26 PM

  Does anyone know how are these patterns were intended to be applied? It seems like they might be block printed, but the fact that they're called "dyeing patterns" makes me think of some kind of resist or shibori.

• by Beijinger on 6/9/25, 3:51 PM

  Is there a PDF Version for download?

• by uwagar on 6/9/25, 3:19 PM

  is it the same hokusai of the giant wave fame?