The blossoming of Japanese mathematics

摘要

At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Tokugawa Ieyasu completed the unification of Japan. His shogunate ruled for more than 250 years and oversaw a period of peace, but with restricted foreign contact. Poetry, music and literature flourished during this time of relative isolation. A unique form of Japanese culture of the period was sangaku - a combination of mathematics and art on votive tablets. Illustrated wooden shingles up to several metres across bearing geometry problems were hung from Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples for public display. Many historical sangaku answers appeared on tablets without proof, perhaps to demonstrate the mathematical prowess of the presenter.