Escher-style tesselation arist Tesematsu

Japanese artist テセ松 Tesematsu (@Tesematsu) has made a name for himself by creating Escher style tesselations. Although he also creates illustrations and two-dimensional tesselated art, his three-dimensional creations have particularly been getting noticed on social media.

He carefully designs his works with 3D software, planning out the often complex interlocking pieces required to make a seamlessly tessellated pattern, then prints out the pieces with a 3D printer. His favorite three-dimensional compositional format is the sphere.

About a month ago, he posted images of his latest spherical tesselation on his Twitter account, and it immediately gained attention.

Kirin Ball

What's a kirin?

The motif of the work was a mythical beast known in Chinese as qilin and in Japanese as kirin (麒麟 kirin), an auspicious hooved chimerical creature appearing in the mythologies of China, Korea and Japan. It is typically portrayed with dragon-like features, with the body of a deer, scales like a dragon, a tail like an ox, and a flowing mane.

If the name "kirin" sounds familiar, you may have heard it in reference to one of Japan's most famous beer brands. You'll find it on every label of Kirin Beer.

Tesematsu's "Kirin Ball"

In a Tweet that was widely viewed, garnering over 22,200 likes at the time of writing, Tesematsu showed off his amazing work which he called a "Kirin Ball":

It's truly remarkable when you consider that this ball is made of 60 pieces, each one of them a kirin, and that not a single drop of glue was used to fit them together!

If you can't believe it, here are the actual pieces, all 60 of them, before assembly:

You can begin to see how they come together to form the sphere here:

And this image makes it even clearer. Now the connection between the pieces and the completed sphere should be apparent:

This remarkable work elicited numerous comments, not only in Japanese but in other languages as well. For example:

More than one comment referred to Kirin Beer, so perhaps Tesematsu was getting thirsty when he posted this video showing how he puts the ball together in only ten minutes, with a can of Kirin Beer to say kampai after a good week's work:

If his "Kirin Ball" has piqued your interest, you should follow his Twitter account and see some of his other stunning three-dimensional tesselated creations. For example, he has also made a "Dragon Ball" (no, not that Dragon Ball) and a "Phoenix Ball":

Fans will be happy to learn that he is currently considering commercializing the Kirin Ball and the Dragon Ball, so stay tuned to his Twitter account to find out what happens!