ichimatsu　市松

Also ishidatami 石畳 or *ishidatamimon 石畳文, danshichi 団七, ichimatsu mon'yō 市松文様. Checkerboard pattern. A geometric pattern of repeated alternating dark and light squares or rectangles. It was named after the mid-18th-century *kabuki 歌舞伎 actor, Sanokawa Ichimatsu 佐野川市松 (1722-62), who used the pattern on his trousers. In the Meiji period, this pattern was also called genroku mon'yō 元禄文様 or genroku kōshi 元禄格子. It has been widely used since the middle ages in architectural decoration, gardens, fabrics, dying, lacquerware, and interior decoration.