Skip to main content
Log in

Sacred Mathematics: Japanese Temple Geometry by Hidetoshi Fukagawa and Tony Rothman; foreword by Freeman Dyson

PRINCETON: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, 392 PP., HARDCOVER US $42.00, ISBN: 9780691127453

  • Reviews
  • Osmo Pekonen, Editor
  • Published:
The Mathematical Intelligencer Aims and scope Submit manuscript

We hope this book can be read in three ways: as an art book that delights simply by the perusal of it, as a history book that provides a little insight into an aspect of Japanese culture rarely mentioned in standard surveys, and finally as a problem book that provides challenging exercises at both the high school and college levels.

T. Rothman and H. Fukagawa.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. H. Fukagawa and D. Pedoe. (1989). Japanese Temple Geometry Problems. Winnipeg, Canada: The Charles Babbage Research Centre.

  2. H. Fukagawa and J. F. Rigby. (2002). Traditional Japanese Mathematics Problems of the 18th and 19th Centuries. Singapore: SCT Press.

  3. Fujita Kagen. (1790) Shinpeki Sanpo. Waseda University Library.

  4. Yamaguchi Kanzan. (1816–1821). Syuyuu Sanpo. City of Agano, JP.

  5. Yamamoto Kazen and Hasegawa Hiromu. (1841). Sanpō jujutsu. Japanese Rare Book Collection, Library of Congress.

  6. Hideyo Makishita. (2011). For Good Mathematics in EducationSolving Problems from Sangaku with Technology. Waseda University Library. https://dspace.wul.waseda.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2065/ 33958/1/KyoikugakuKenkyukaKiyoBetsu_19_1_Makishita2.pdf. Accessed: October 2015.

  7. Jean Constant. (2012). Digital Approaches to Visualization of Geometric Problems in Wooden Sangaku Tablets. IGI Global Publishers.

  8. Jean Constant. (2012). Proceedings of the 2012 Mathematics and Art Conference. Towson University: Tesselation Publishing.

  9. Jean Constant. (2011). Digital Sangaku. Scribd Publishing.

  10. Jean Constant. (rev. 2015). Digital Sangaku, Part I & Part II. Blurb Publishing.

Iconography

  • [Fig. 0] Book cover—Sacred MathematicsJapanese Temple Geometry.

  • [Fig. 1] Portion of a wooden sangaku hung in Fukushima prefecture in 1885. Princeton University Press/Asahi Shinbun.

  • [Fig. 2] Original illustration by Hotta Jinsuke (1788) as it appears in Fujita Kagen’s 1789 book, Shinpeki Sanpo and Fukagawa-Rothman diagram of the problem.

  • [Fig. 3] Hideyo Makishita. (2011). For Good Mathematics in EducationSolving Problems from Sangaku with Technology. A Casio fx-9860GII graphic calculator screenshot.

  • [Fig. 4] NNMC College, New Mexico. Mathematics and Engineering Department, Visual Communication program, animation class.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jean Constant.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Constant, J. Sacred Mathematics: Japanese Temple Geometry by Hidetoshi Fukagawa and Tony Rothman; foreword by Freeman Dyson . Math Intelligencer 39, 83–85 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00283-016-9704-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00283-016-9704-8

Navigation