Page:A history of Japanese mathematics (IA historyofjapanes00smitiala).pdf/29

Rh was looked upon as the patron of science and letters. (See Fig. 3.) The second is that of Michinori, Lord of the province of Hyūga. His name is connected with a mathematical theory called the Keishi-zan. It seems to have been related to permutations and to have been thought of enough consequence to attract the attention of Yoshida and of his great successor Seki in the 17th century Michinori's work was written in the Hogen period (1156—1159).

The third name is that of Genshō, a Buddhist priest in the time of Shogun Yoriye, at the opening of the 13th century. Tradition says that he was distinguished for his arithmetical powers, but so far as we know he wrote nothing and had no permanent influence upon mathematics.

Thus passes and closes a period of a thousand years, with not a single book of any merit, and without advancing the science of mathematics a single pace. Europe was backward enough, but Japan was worse. China was doing a little, India was doing more, but the Arab was accomplishing still more through his restlessness of spirit if not through his mathematical genius. The world's rebirth was approaching, and this Renaissance came to Japan at about the time that it came to Europe, accompanied in both cases by a grafting of foreign learning upon native stock.

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