Ritsuko Izuhara
Kobe Design University, Kobe, Hyogo 651-2196, Japan
E-mail: izu@ta2.so-net.ne.jp
(Received November 19, 1999; Accepted January 31, 2000)
Keywords: Baien Miura, Symmetry, Mirror Reflection, Geometry, Philosophy
Abstract. 'Gengo-zu' are diagrams drawn by Baien Miura, a Japanese philosopher in the Edo era. 'Gengo-zu' is to schematize a structural principle of the universe based on the unified principle as a dichotomy. Almost all of his diagrams are drawn with symmetry as 'mirror reflection'. The purpose here is to investigate his diagrams in terms of symmetry. For this purpose, it is tried to analyze them from a new point of view. The author formulates a hypothesis that Baien's diagrams are to represent 3-dimensional structural concepts in two dimensions. In this paper, it is cleared the Baien's method for representing a 3-dimensional structure. Their 3-dimensional images are reconstructed and compared with these original diagrams from a point of view of symmetry.