Creating a Seigaha Motif with ggplot2
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Seigaiha 青海波 🌊
The Seigaiha (青海波) motif, literally translated as “blue ocean waves” is a classic Japanese pattern used in textiles, ceramics, kimono and art. It features stylized waves created with concentric circles forming arches. I just learned that it symbolizes surges of good luck – delightful and thought great start to have it for blog post.
- 青 = Blue
- 海 = Ocean
- 波 = Wave
Using ggplot2 and additional packages like ggforce and cowplot, I was able to recreate this timeless design programmatically.
Walk Through of How I Created the Pattern
First need to load up the required libraries. Recently, I discovered package called annotater , which let you add annotation to the packages you use in script! It’s such a useful tool – future me (and anyone collaborating on my code) will likely thank me for using it.
Code
library(tidyverse) # Easily Install and Load the 'Tidyverse'
library(ggforce) # Accelerating 'ggplot2'
library(cowplot) # Streamlined Plot Theme and Plot Annotations for 'ggplot2'
library(gt) # Easily Create Presentation-Ready Display Tables
col10 <- str_split("012a4a-013a63-01497c-014f86-2a6f97-2c7da0-468faf-61a5c2-89c2d9-a9d6e5","-")
col10_pal <-str_c("#",col10 |> unlist())
Generating the Grid Data
We create a grid of coordinates to serve as the base for our motif. To archieve the characteristic offset of Seigaiha waves, we adjust the x coordinates for odd rows:
Code
df <- expand_grid(x = seq(-16, 16, by = 2),
y = seq(-10, 10, by = 1)) |>
arrange(y,x) |>
mutate(y_odd=(y%%2==1)) |>
mutate(idx=row_number()-1) |>
mutate(x=if_else(y_odd,x+1,x))
Expanding for Circle Sizes
The radii of the circles vary in five steps. It could be smaller or larger. I could’ve also add randomness to it too, but I just kept it constant for now.
Code
r_values <- seq(0.3,1.1,length.out=5) df_long <- df |> expand_grid(r=r_values) df_long <- df_long |> mutate(r_var=if_else(idx%%5==0,sqrt(r),r)) #range(df_long$x) #range(df_long$y) df_long |> head() |> gt()
| x | y | y_odd | idx | r | r_var |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -16 | -10 | FALSE | 0 | 0.3 | 0.5477226 |
| -16 | -10 | FALSE | 0 | 0.5 | 0.7071068 |
| -16 | -10 | FALSE | 0 | 0.7 | 0.8366600 |
| -16 | -10 | FALSE | 0 | 0.9 | 0.9486833 |
| -16 | -10 | FALSE | 0 | 1.1 | 1.0488088 |
| -14 | -10 | FALSE | 1 | 0.3 | 0.3000000 |
Plotting the Seigaiha Motif
Using geom_circle from ggforce, we layer circles over the grid. We map the fill colour to the adjusted radius (r_var) for a slight gradeient effect:
Code
df_long |>
arrange(-y, idx, desc(r)) |>
ggplot() +
geom_circle(
aes(
x0 = x,
y0 = y,
r = r,
fill = r_var ## just wanted to give bit of variance
),
linewidth = 0.1,
color = "#fffff3de",
linetype = 3
) +
coord_fixed(clip = "on",
xlim = c(-15, 14.5),
ylim = c(-9, 9)) +
theme_nothing() +
scale_fill_gradientn(colors = col10_pal) +
scale_color_gradientn(colors = col10_pal)
Final Touch
The theme_nothing() from cowplot removes all unnecessary visual elements (axes, labels etc.), leaving only the motif. I’ve adjusted xlim and ylim so that I’m clipping out the extra circles.
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