Wasan, the Japanese mathematics of isolation
Keywords:
Wasan, Mathematics; , Japan, Edo PeriodAbstract
Japan overcame at the beginning of the 17th century a stage of internal conflict with a regime that implemented an isolationist policy for more than two hundred years. This was also a time of social stratification and limitations to technology, but also of a growing intellectual and commercial dynamism. In this context, a particular kind of mathematics was developed, called wasan, which remained quite distant from the natural sciences and had considerable diversity, for it was practiced in a similar way to arts and religion. This paper presents a description of wasan and an analysis of its historical development and of the
context in which it got along. Furthermore, the reasons for its decline are exposed in terms of its own features and on account of the necessity, in the mid-19th century, of useful mathematics for technological and military progress.
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