I’m a big fan of Japanese graphic design. The design of my website is (not coincidentally) a reference to this style: the website is minimalist, geometric and contains natural elements (the leaves).

My love for Japan also shows in my project Zen garden websites. In this project I create existing websites with only one HTML file and one CSS file. I follow the Japanese pursuit of ‘harmonious simplicity’. These websites do not require a web server and still follow the DRY principle.

My website also contains a mascot, something that is typical for Japanese companies. And… I added a new Japanese gimmick today! On the splash screen on the homepage you will now find the Seigaiha pattern, which symbolizes a peaceful sea, quiet strength and good fortune. A nice reference to ‘surfing the web’.

Seigaiha pattern

I made this pattern myself in SVG using 5 circles filled with radial gradients. The code for this is quite elegant and can be found below:

<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 100 60">
   <defs>
    <radialGradient id="grad" cx="50%" cy="50%" r="50%" fx="50%" fy="50%">
      <stop offset="9%" stop-color="#2a2a2a" />
      <stop offset="10%" stop-color="#222" />
      <stop offset="19%" stop-color="#222" />
      <stop offset="20%" stop-color="#2a2a2a" />
      <stop offset="29%" stop-color="#2a2a2a" />
      <stop offset="30%" stop-color="#222" />
      <stop offset="39%" stop-color="#222" />
      <stop offset="40%" stop-color="#2a2a2a" />
      <stop offset="49%" stop-color="#2a2a2a" />
      <stop offset="50%" stop-color="#222" />
      <stop offset="59%" stop-color="#222" />
      <stop offset="60%" stop-color="#2a2a2a" />
      <stop offset="69%" stop-color="#2a2a2a" />
      <stop offset="70%" stop-color="#222" />
      <stop offset="79%" stop-color="#222" />
      <stop offset="80%" stop-color="#2a2a2a" />
      <stop offset="89%" stop-color="#2a2a2a" />
      <stop offset="90%" stop-color="#222" />
    </radialGradient>
  </defs>
  <circle fill="url(#grad)" cy="27" r="57" />
  <circle fill="url(#grad)" cx="100" cy="27" r="57" />
  <circle fill="url(#grad)" cx="50" cy="57" r="57" /> 
  <circle fill="url(#grad)" cy="87" r="57" />
  <circle fill="url(#grad)" cx="100" cy="87" r="57" />
</svg>

In addition to this literal pattern, a new pattern can also be found in the composition of the organic traffic of my website. Previously, visitors mainly came from the US, the Netherlands and India (in that order). Since a few weeks, 90% of the traffic comes from Japan!

Of course I was curious why that happened, so I searched the list of ‘inbound links’. There I found www.hatena.ne.jp in 10th place. This website belongs to an internet company from Japan (Hatena Co., Ltd.). This company runs the most popular bookmarking service in Japan (among other things), called ‘Hatena Bookmark’ or ‘Hatebu’. My website apparently scored 40 inbound links on that service. Here is an example of such a link.

I am of course very honored by this attention and I want to give a special welcome to all Japanese visitors of this website.

()  Joost van der Schee