Page:A history of Japanese mathematics (IA historyofjapanes00smitiala).pdf/17

Rh The interesting features of the ancient system are the decimal system and the use of the word yorozu, which now means 10000. This, however, may be a meaning that came with the influx of Chinese learning, and we are not at all certain that in ancient Japanese it stood for the Greek myriad. The use of yorozu for 10000 was adopted in later times when the number names came to be based upon Chinese roots, and it may possibly have preceded the entry of Chinses learning in historic times. Thus 10 was not “hundred thousand” in this later period, but “ten myriads”, and our million is a hundred myriads. Now this system of numeration by myriads is one of the frequently observed evidences of early intercourse between the scholars of the East and the West. Trades people and the populace at large did not need such large numbers, but to the scholar they were significant. When, therefore, we find the myriad as the base of the Greek system, and find it more or less in use in India, and know that it still persists in China, and see systematically used in the ancient Japanese system as well as in the modern number names, we are