On a sangaku of Sugino'o Shrine (Yamagata) and Yamaguchi Kanzan's second trip

Abstract

In the preamble of the 1818 sangaku tablet of Sugino'o Shrine, the proposers acknowledged the help of an unnamed teacher/master in understanding and solving certain mathematical problems. Endō Tadashi argued that this unnamed teacher could be Saitō Naonaka (1773-1844). In this paper, we examine the famous travel diary of Yamaguchi Kanzan (?-1850) especially on his second trip to the Northeast. We compare the content of Yamaguchi's diary with the three problems of Sugino'o's tablet. Together with the timing of Yamaguchi's travel, we conclude that Yamaguchi Kanzan was likely the unnamed master mentioned in the preface of the Sugino'o Shrine sangaku.