Ajima Naonobu (安島直円?, 1732 – 1798), also known as Ajima Chokuyen, was a Japanese mathematician of the Edo period.[1]

Ajima is credited with introducing calculus into Japanese mathematics. This significance of this innovaction is not diminished by a likelihood that he had access to European writings on the subject.[2]

Ajima was an astronomer at the Shogun's Observatory (Bakufu Temmongaki).[3]

In 1976, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) honored Ajima by identifying a crater on the moon with his name. Naonobu is a small lunar impact crater located on the eastern Mare Fecunditatis, to the northwest of the prominent crater Langrenus.[4]

Selected works

Ajima's published writings encompass 28 works in 33 publications in 2 languages and 45 library holdings.[5]

This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries.

* Ajima Naonobu zenshū (安島直円全集?) "017232052" OCLC 017232052, collected works
* Sanpō kosō (算法考艸?) OCLC 22057185881, algorithms considered
* Jujireki bimmo (Introduction of the 'Works and Days Calendar')[3]
* Anshi seiyo-reki koso (Ajima's Studies for Western Calendars)[3]
* Ajima sensei bimmo do jutsu (Methods of Professor Ajima's 'bimmo' )[3]
* Koshoku mokyu zokkai (Introduction of Eclipses of the Sun and the Moon)[6]
* Sansha San'en Jutsu (Methods of Three Diagonals and Three Circles)[7]

See also

* Sangaku, the custom of presenting mathematical problems, carved in wood tablets, to the public in shinto shrines
* Soroban, a Japanese abacus
* Japanese mathematics (wasan)

Notes

1. ^ Smith, David. (1914). A History of Japanese Mathematics, pp. 195-205. at Google Books
2. ^ Restivo, Sal P. (1992). Mathematics in Society and History: Sociological Inquiries, p. 58. at Google Books
3. ^ a b c d Jochi, Shigeru. (1997). "Ajima Naonobu," Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures, p. 38. at Google Books
4. ^ United States Geological Survey: Planetary names, Naonobu; Naonobu lunar crater (in Japanese)
5. ^ WorldCat Identities: 安島直円 1739-1798
6. ^ Jochi, pp. 38-39. at Google Books
7. ^ Jochi, p. 39. at Google Books

References

* Endō Toshisada (1896). History of mathematics in Japan (日本數學史史 , Dai Nihon sūgakush?). Tōkyō: _____. OCLC 122770600
* Oya, Shin'ichi. (1970). "Ajima Naonobu" in Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Vol. 1. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 10-ISBN 0684101149
* Restivo, Sal P. (1992). Mathematics in Society and History: Sociological Inquiries. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. 10-ISBN 0792317653/13-ISBN 9780792317654; OCLC 25709270
* Selin, Helaine. (1997). Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Dordrecht: Kluwer/Springer. 10-ISBN 0792340663/13-ISBN 9780792340669; OCLC 186451909
* David Eugene Smith and Yoshio Mikami. (1914). A History of Japanese Mathematics. Chicago: Open Court Publishing. OCLC 1515528 -- note alternate online, full-text copy at archive.org

External links

* Sangaku