Comment by srean
1 day ago
Indeed.
Check this out
https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1899550/1/11/
I don't know whether Escher was familiar with Hokusai's work but they shared a common interest in tilings and tesselations. Damned if I can find those Hokusai sketches on the web now.
This is Shingata komon-cho 新形小紋帳 (Book of New Patterns) from 1824, held by the British Museum: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1973-0723-...
Wow that is kind of mind-blowing. Looking through other pages, Hokusai is showing each "rule" (法) and its application (tessalation) that produces the pattern. It makes me wonder about what kind of cultural exchange was happening between Japan and Europe at the time.
Escher would be generations younger. However, I am curious about whether Hokusai encountered any Islamic art. Tesselations and symmetry play a big role in that one. I submitted ed this link as a separate HN post.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47902993