Guide to Japanese patterns: Shippo, interlocking circles, the seven jewels motif
Posted by 3Dsound at Saturday, June 21, 2008 11:31 AM and is filed under Design,draggin' the line,Graphic Design,Japanese patterns,Guide to Japanese patterns,Aki Asuwa,Buddhism 
3rd in a Japanese design series
Draggin' the line
This auspicious pattern deploys repeating, interlocking circles and is often used graphically to fill background spaces. In spite of its secular use, what's auspicious about the pattern is its allusion to the "seven jewels" of Buddhism, a symbology that originated in India and arrived in Japan by way of China. The pattern doesn't depict any of the jewels (gold, silver, lapis lazuli, agate, pearl, coral or crystal) nor does it exploit a repeating seven-unit motif, but rather, when the pattern was introduced from China, the Japanese are said to have thought it sparkled like a gem, and thus, they applied the descriptor "shippo" to it, which is derived from "shippou," the Japanese word for the seven jewels.
The earliest example of the shippo pattern comes from the eighth century and is housed in the Shōsōin – the Emperor’s treasure house at the Tōdai-ji temple complex in Nara.
At Tōdai-ji in 752, the ceremony dedicating the temple's Great Buddha (which shouldn't be confused with the Great Buddha at the Kōtoku-in temple in Kamakura; the former inside, the later outside) included the display of "seven-jewel trees" on the platform with the Buddha. Each tree was hung with precious gems. No record has come down to us as to whether or not the shippo pattern was in evidence at the ceremony, but I'm pretty sure it was.
Shown below are three examples of the shippo pattern (the red and blue example being an op-art design by
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