Sacred Mathematics: Japanese Temple Geometry

If you like Sangakus, and mathematics in general, this is your book. Greetings from Colombia

Questo interessantissimo e leggibilissimo volume è al contempo:un belissimo libro d'arte, con fotografie stupende di opere uniche della tradizione iconografica giapponese;un libro di storia della matematica che affronta il campo dei Sangaku, poco esplorato e ancora ricco di spunti da studiare;un repertorio di problemi interessantissimi, tali da suscitare l'entusiasmo di studenti ed appassionati.Peccato che difficilmnete ne vedremo un'edizione italiana.

For anyone who truly loves mathematics, this book is a must have.Simply put, the book tells the story of sangaku, geometry problems which were painted in color on wooden tablets and displayed at Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines throughout Japan. Most of the sangaku were composed by people from all walks of life-priests, farmers, children women, samurai, etc.-between 1600 and 1900. Approximately 900 of the old tablets have survived and even today one is occasionally found at an abandoned temple/shrine. Tony Rothman has assisted Mr. Fukagawa Hidetoshi, a retired Japanese high school teacher, who is one of the world's foremost experts in sangaku, in producing a beautiful book. Various chapters discuss Japan and temple geometry, the Chinese foundation of mathematics, Japanese mathematics and mathematicians of the Edo period. In addition, the book contains over 200 sangaku problems ranging from very elementary to extremely difficult. The book also contains extensive excerpts from the diary of Yamaguchi Kanzan, a Japanese mathematician, who treked through Japan during the 1800s collecting sangaku problems. Finally, there are chapters on East and West, Japanese attempts to handle differentiation and integration, and inversion. The book contains numerous diagrams which accompany the problems and there are 16 color plates. In summary, this book captures a beautiful form of vanished mathematics which was artistic/religious in nature. Mr. Fukagawa Hidetoshi and Mr. Rothman are to be congratulated for producing a superb book which tells the story of this vanished mathematical/religious art form. Buy your copy today. This book contains enough history, mathematics, art, and religion to keep one's intellect perplexed for years.

I have been using a number of the Sangakus from Sacred Geometry in my High School Pre-Calculus classes to get things rolling at the start of the class. The kids are loving them! Watching the kids last class get the problem and go to work on it reminded me of watching piranha's go after a hapless animal-- maybe a bit less graphic. The problems are just great-- they really hook the kids, really get them trying stuff, and they do a fantastic job of building up and connecting their skills. Of course I am having a great time with them too!Further, the book is just a pleasure to read. Everything about it-- prose, graphics, mathematics, quality of production-- is just top notch.

I am using this book for an independent study course and it has been perfect. I love the history it includes and the pictures of the equations as they were in Japan. I also liked that it included several chapters of text book style equations with examples of how to solve them, it helped me in my course work a lot.