Seki Takakazu. (2023, July 29). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seki_Takakazu

Early Life

Seki Takakazu was a mathematician during the Edo Period. Takakazu’s date of birth is unknown, but researchers have estimated he was born between 1635 and 1643. The lack of certainty about his birth, along with other information is due to his lineage being ended due to his son being exiled. At a young age, Seki Takakazu was adopted into the Seki family where he soon started to teach himself mathematics by reading a book written by Yoshida Kōyū called “Jinkoki”. As Takakazu aged further, his skills in mathematics allowed him to serve under the military government during the Edo period, the Tokugawa Shogunate. He served by keeping and maintaining assets for the Shogun (military leader of a large armed force) of that time. Takakazu would later go on to make advancements to a Chinese mathematics system (Tengen jutsu) that influenced early Japanese mathematics. Takakazu would be the first mathematician to develop the theory of determinants and resultants.

Contributions and Developments

Takakazu would be the first mathematician to develop the theory of determinants and resultants. He invented a notation system called Tensan jutsu to make it possible to do advanced computations on paper. One of the most fascinating achievements of Takakazu is his advancements with Pi. He created and constructed a polygon with 131,072 sides and with this polygon, he was able to determine the value of Pi up until the eleventh decimal place. As previously stated, many of his contributions were lost due to his lineage being ended. One of his accomplishments that was not discovered for a long period of time was his discovery of the Bernoulli numbers. If you were to ask his predecessors, his greatest accomplishment was the school that he created. The “Seki School” was very dominant throughout the Edo period and hosted some of Japan’s most famous mathematicians.

Death and Legacy

Seki Takakazu passed away in 1708 on December 5th due to an illness that overcame him. Takakazu’s discoveries were passed down to his students in silence, but some records show that he even developed skills in calculus before Isaac Newton. Four years before his death Takakazu was granted the honor of Shogunate Samurai as well as the privilege of being the person who introduced the entertainers and speakers at royal events.

References

Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (2023, September 8). Tokugawa period. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Tokugawa-period

First shogunate in Japan. First Shogunate in Japan. (n.d.). https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/first-shogunate-japan/

Takakazu Seki - Biography. Maths History. (n.d.). https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Seki/#:~:text=Takakazu%20Seki%20was%20a%20Japanese,Bernoulli%20numbers%20before%20Jacob%20Bernoulli.

Wikimedia Foundation. (2023a, July 13). Yoshida Mitsuyoshi. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshida_Mitsuyoshi#Notes

Wikimedia Foundation. (2023b, August 29). Bernoulli number. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernoulli_number

Wikimedia Foundation. (2023c, September 11). Tokugawa shogunate. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokugawa_shogunate#:~:text=The%20Tokugawa%20shogunate%20(%2F%CB%8Ct,Tokugawa%20bakufu

Yu, A. C. (n.d.). Seki Takakazu - Japanese wiki corpus. Seki Takakazu - Japanese Wiki Corpus. https://www.japanesewiki.com/person/Takakazu%20SEKI.html