著者

野村 正雄

出版者

日本科学史学会

雑誌

科学史研究 (ISSN:21887535)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.41, no.221, pp.1-13, 2002 (Released:2021-08-16)

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In 1770's Maeno Ryotaku, one of the pioneers introducing Western science into Tokugawa Japan, wrote a couple of notes entitled by Honyaku Undoho (Parallelogram of Forces) and Sokuyogi Zusetsu (Planetarium). The former concerns with the method to compose as many as four forces into a single force. The latter is illustration of the apparatus to demonstrate elliptic motion of the planets. The present paper is to clarify that the couple of notes are Japanese translations of such and such passages of Desaguliers' de natuurkunde uit ondervindingen, a Dutch book. Main figures of the notes are copies or modifications of the corresponding figures in the Dutch book. Detailed comparison of Maeno's notes with the Dutch book allows us to learn to what extent Maeno understood western physics. In 1914/1915, the editor of Nieuw Archief voor Wiskunde (a Dutch mathematical journal) inferred that no book other than the Desaguliers' book could be the original. However, he failed to show which passages and figures of the original had been transcribed into the couple of notes. In particular, he did not discuss any on Sokuyogi Zusetsu. The present paper removes imcompleteness of the prior investigation.