International String Figure Association
nonprofit organization

The International String Figure Association is not-for-profit organization for the preservation, dissemination, and creation of string figures. The association was founded in Japan in 1978 by mathematician Hiroshi Noguchi and Anglican missionary Philip Noble, and is now run by Mark Sherman out of California. Members have included Honor Maude. ISFA publishes the Bulletin of the International String Figure Association (ISSN 1076-7886) annually, ISFA News semi-annually, and String Figure Magazine quarterly (ISSN 1087-1527).
Mission and activities
The mission of the ISFA is to "gather, preserve, and distribute string figure knowledge so that future generations will continue to enjoy" them.
Activities of the association include working backwards and attempting variations to solve "Figures Known Only from the Finished Pattern". Other activities include the Arctic String Figure Project.
See also
List of string figures
Bibliography
International String Figure Association. Fascinating String Figures. ISBN 0-486-40400-5.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “International String Figure Association” is nonprofit organization. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through International, String and Figure, not as a finished interpretation.
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Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q11422289. VIAF identifies the subject as 133477409. The Library of Congress control number is no95037307. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1978, 1076, 1087 and 1527.
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This entry incorporates text from “International String Figure Association” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.