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I recently remembered a Bhuddist painting available online in theMasterworks section of the Kyoto National Museum that shows use of some of the patterns I have recently posted. The piece is a painting of Bishamon-ten that was done in 1127 as one of 12 divas hung for the New Years cermony at Shingon-in in the Imperial Palace.
In the detail images you can see the bishamon patterns executed in cut gold leaf (kirikane). In the center detail you can see a variant of the bishamon pattern on the belly and thigh armour of Bishamon-ten.
In the pattern detail you can see a variant of the shippō or “seven treasures” design as an all over design.
Also notice the background pattern in use at the museum’s site. It is a drill carved (kiribori) stencil inspired design. In fact this oldest of Japanese stencil carving techniques lends itself perfectly to web background patterns as most kiribori designs are repeating patterns known as komon. Often the carver would create a small template called a kohon (lit. “small book”) that was used to ink the repeating pattern onto the larger stencil. The final komon generally consisted of 8–12 repeats of one kohon. A standard komon stencil size was 15cm x 40 cm (approx. 5×15 inches). This stencil would be repeated the entire length of the bolt of fabric being dyed—often over 100 repeats. More on all that later if anyone is interested…