Hamonshu: A Japanese Book of Wave and Ripple Designs (1903)
Text by Adam Green
Sep 16, 2018



The three volumes above bring together a wonderful selection of wave and ripple designs produced by the Japanese artist Mori Yuzan, about whom not a lot is known, apart from that he hailed from Kyoto, worked in the Nihonga style, and died in 1917. The works would have acted as a kind of go-to guide for Japanese craftsmen looking to adorn their wares with wave and ripple patterns. The designs would have found their way onto swords (both blades and handles) and associated paraphernalia (known as "sword furniture"), as well as lacquerware, Netsuke, religious objects, and a host of other items. Peruse the pages above and also see some of our favourites below, including the excellent triple-page composite image (from volume 3) featured near the end.
[NOTE: This post is an expanded and updated version of a previous post which only featured Volume 3 and incorrectly labelled it as Ha Bun Shu, a later post-humous collection of Mori Yuzan's work -- that URL now redirects to this new post. Thank you to all our wonderful community who pointed out this error which was inherited from an incorrect Internet Archive description.]