The wave/birds juxtaposition is very Escher-like

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.

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lioeters an hour ago | parent [-]

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.

	▲	srean an hour ago \| parent [-]
		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