SEKI KOWA

born 1642, Fujioka, Japan died 1708, Japan also called Takakazu generally considered the founder of Japanese mathematics. Born into a samurai warrior family, Seki was a child prodigy in mathematics. He developed a mathematical theory of determinants that was more general than that of the 18th-century German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz and predated it. Seki is also credited with having made major discoveries in calculus, many of which were passed on to and used by Takebe, one of his disciples. A comprehensive and accurate account of Seki's contributions is difficult because of the secrecy that surrounded rival schools in Japan at that time and the modesty that was demanded of him by the samurai code.