In ancient times, when people carved patterns in wooden buildings, they most likely wanted to leave some kind of message. For the people who lived in the buildings, life continued eternally through posterity, and these patterns were something akin to magical invocations designed to ensure prosperity. With this in mind, the author has endeavored to analyze and several patterns abstracted from botanical figures found in ornaments of classical architecture were reproduces by integrating logarithmic spirals. These logarithmic spirals identified in botanical figures on classical architectures and their ornaments, expressing plants themselves, repeating as simplified patterns, forming spirals, or filling the spaces in plant patterns, produced a sense of eternal life which could be seen rhythmically off and on. Moreover, these logarithmic spirals have been used over the years as design elements effective enough for the people who observe them to feel gorgeousness, to find sacredness in the botanical figures and to believe that they would be blessed forever.
Bulletin of Japanese Society for the Science of Design 54 (5), 73-78, 2008
Japanese Society for the Science of Design