Japanese Mathematics in the Edo Period (1600-1868): A study of the works of Seki Takakazu (?-1708) and Takebe Katahiro (1664-1739) (Science Networks. Historical Studies, 40) - Hardcover

Horiuchi, Annick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3764387440 ISBN 13: 9783764387440

Publisher: Birkhäuser, 2010

Synopsis

The book presents the main features of the Wasan tradition, which is the indigenous mathematics that developed in Japan during the Edo period. (1600-1868). It begins with a description of the first mathematical textbooks published in the 17th century, then shifts to the work of the two leading mathematicians of this tradition, Seki Takakazu and Takebe Katahiro. The book provides substantial information on the historical and intellectual context, the role played by the Chinese mathematical treatises introduced at the late 16th century, and an analysis of Seki’s and Takebe’s contribution to the development of algebra and calculus in Japan.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Japanese mathematics, known also under the name of wasan, experienced a remarkable development between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Wasan took its roots from the Chinese tradition of mathematics and shared its language and its categories of problems, but gave it a new impetus, transforming the Chinese algebraic method of the "heavenly element" into a powerful tool with a much wider scope. All domains of mathematical research were revisited in the light of this new algebra.

This book focuses on the first period of the development of wasan. It offers a survey of the earliest manuals for learning the use of the abacus published in the seventeenth century, notably the famous Jinkoki, which counted among the bestsellers of the Tokugawa period. The works of the two greatest mathematicians of this period, Seki Takakazu and Takebe Katahiro, and the way they transformed the face of mathematics, are examined in detail, with particular emphasis on the historical context, the relations between these two mathematicians and the political leaders of the epoch, and the role that mathematics played in this rapidly rising society.

Review:

“The book is an extremely attractive gateway into the historical questions surrounding the best-known period of wasan, one written from a modern methodological perspective. ... I was delighted and impressed by this book and its contents, with so many points of contact with and development of traditional Chinese mathematical knowledge.” (Jiří Hudeček, East Asian, Science, Technology, and Medicine, Issue 37, 2014)

“The present volume is a very careful English translation of a book which has been first published in French in 1994. ... readers will also get from these a visual apprehension of what Japanese mathematical texts physically looked like during the Edo period. Anyone interested in Japanese mathematics and its multifarious aspects ... should first have recourse to this outstanding book in as much as his excellent critical apparatus open wide perspectives for future researches in such a domain.” (Jean-Claude Martzloff, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1206, 2011)

About this edition

• Publisher: Birkhäuser
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 3764387440
• ISBN 13: 9783764387440
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 377