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"Japanese Temple Geometry," by Tony Rothman, with cooperation of Hidetoshi Fukagawa. Scientific American, May 1998.
During Japan's period of national seclusion (1639-1854) there arose a tradition known as sangaku, Japanese temple geometry. Under the roofs of their religious shrines and temples, sangaku devotees would hang brightly colored tablets engraved with solutions to geometry problems.
While many of these problems could be solved with ordinary Eulidean geometry, others demanded more complicated mathematics. In fact, many sangaku problems required calculus, and Japanese mathematicians developed a crude form of it in the late 1600s, independently from their Western peers. The most difficult exercises are nearly impossible; today, modern geometers would use advanced techniques such as affine transformations to tackle them.
While mathematically interesting, sangaku's cultural aspects could be even more intriguing. No one knows who began the tradition or why, but it is clear that followers created these tablets as acts of religious homage, and as challenges to other worshippers. Sangaku stands out as a distinctive Japanese tradition, and the tablets that have survived are regarded as elegant, beautiful works of art.
--Ben Stein
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