Yoshio Mikami

Yoshio Mikami ( jap三 上 义夫; born February 16, 1875 in Kōtachi (now part of the district Koda, Akitakata ), Hiroshima Prefecture, † December 31, 1950 in Hiroshima ) was a Japanese historian of mathematics and mathematicians.

Mikami, the son of a landowner, attended the second high school, one of the forerunners of today's Tohoku University, but he left early due to illness. From 1911 he studied philosophy at the prestigious Tokyo Imperial University. In 1913 he published in Teubner in Leipzig a book on the history of mathematics in Japan and China. 1914 was followed by a history of mathematics in Japan with the U.S. math historian David Eugene Smith. This was followed by other monographs, but only appeared in Japanese.

He is mainly known for his work on the history of Japanese mathematics ( Wasan ). In a series of essays in the 1930s, it dealt specifically with the mathematician Seki Takakazu ( Seki Kowa ).

Mikami was after the first approaches of the British missionary Alexander Wylie one who gave detailed knowledge of Chinese history of mathematics in the West, where he was in his first monograph from 1913 primarily due to the collection of mathematicians biographies ( Chouren zhuan ) of 1799 by Ruan Yuan ( 1764 - 1849) was based. His books on Japanese mathematics are standard works.

Writings

• Mathematical papers from the far east, Journal of Mathematics and Physics, Volume 28, Teubner, Leipzig and Stechert, New York 1910
• Development of mathematics in China and Japan, Teubner, Leipzig ( Essays on the History of Mathematics, Volume 30 ) 1912 Stechert, New York 1913, Chelsea Reprint 1961
• David Eugene Smith, History of Japanese Mathematics, Chicago, The Open Court Publishing Company in 1914, Dover 2004, Online
• Bunkashi jōyori Mitaru Nihon no Sūgaku (文化 史上 より 見 たる 日本 の 數學, literally " Japanese mathematics from the perspective of cultural history "). Tokyo, Sogemasha, 1947 ( Japanese)
• Magic squares problems in Japanese Mathematics, Tokyo 1917 ( Japanese)