2 JAPANESE THINKER’S DIAGRAMS IN THE EDO ERA

There were many Japanese thinkers in the Edo era who used the diagrams, for instance Tojyu Nakae(1608-1648), Banzan Kumazawa(1619-1691), Shoeki Ando(1703-?), Baien Miura(1723-1789), and Sontoku Ninomiya(1787-1856). Especially, Baien Miura used many unique diagrams called “Gengo-zu” in his philosophical works. His philosophical thought is studied by the researchers (Takahashi 1981, Ogata 1998, Yamada 1984). The features of “Gengo-zu” were also explored by the author’s recent studies (Izuhara 2000, 2002, 2004). As the result, it was clarified that “Gengo-zu” represents three-dimensional structures (Fig.11). In this study, “Gengo-zu” is compared with the diagrams by the other thinkers in terms of the shapes and the functions. As the result, the common features of their diagrams are circularity and symmetry (Fig. 6,7,8,9,10). On the other hands, the characteristic features of “Gengo-zu” are that Baien formulated his own system as languages and formulas. Furthermore, it is confirmed that only “Gengo-zu” represents three-dimensional structures. The reason of these differences is considered that Baien was influenced by the western culture, which was visual aid used in geography and astronomy, for instance world maps, terrestrial and celestial globes, armillary sphere and so on. 

These western things were imported from the Netherlands and the other countries at that time at Dejima in Nagasaki. We shall remind about the image by J. Kepler (Fig.12). It is considered that Baien also imagined his theoretical structures based on the unified principle of universe in cosmological structure.

3D Images of “Gengo-zu” by Izuhara, R.