Shizuki Tadao
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

was a Japanese
astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...
and
translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...
of European scientific works into Japanese. Shizuki was adopted as a child into a family of translators from Dutch to Japanese, and in 1776 Shizuki began working in the family profession; however, in 1777 he stopped working in the family's ''tsuji'' tradition and began translating and writing commentaries on works of
natural philosophy Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe, while ignoring any supernatural influence. It was dominant before the develop ...
independently. He began using the name Ryuen Nakano, Nakano being his birth family name. Shizuki apprenticed under Ryoei Motoki (who had translated and interpreted Copernicus's works) in Nagasaki, which at that time was a rare hub for Japanese intellectuals to obtain and discuss Western ideas. Motoki and Shizuki collaborated on translations of Dutch scientific treatises, and helped introduce and popularize
Newtonian mechanics Newton's laws of motion are three physical laws that describe the relationship between the motion of an object and the forces acting on it. These laws, which provide the basis for Newtonian mechanics, can be paraphrased as follows: # A body r ...
to Japanese scholars, as well as ideas about planetary motion and calendrics ultimately derived from Copernicus and
Johannes Kepler Johannes Kepler (27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, Natural philosophy, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best know ...
. Shizuki's commentaries draw heavily from John Keill's, though Shizuki also generated his own ideas in his commentaries, and sought to reconcile Western philosophies of science with traditional
Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, religion, theory of government, or way of life. Founded by Confucius ...
metaphysical ideas. His best-known work was ''Rekisho Shinsho'', or ''New Treatise on Calendrical Phenomena'', which he completed in 1802 and which was heavily indebted to Keill's works, several of which Shizuki had already translated by that time. Several of the Japanese terms that Shizuki used in translating Newtonian mechanical ideas, including those for
gravity In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...
and
centripetal force Centripetal force (from Latin ''centrum'', "center" and ''petere'', "to seek") is the force that makes a body follow a curved trajectory, path. The direction of the centripetal force is always orthogonality, orthogonal to the motion of the bod ...
, were adopted into the Japanese scientific lexicon and remain in common use.


References

*Steven L. Renshaw and Saori Ihara, "Shizuki, Tadao". In Virginia Trimble, et al., ed. ''Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers''. Springer, 2007, p. 1056.
Google Books link
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shizuki, Tadao 1760 births 1806 deaths 18th-century Japanese astronomers 18th-century Japanese translators 19th-century Japanese astronomers Scientists from Nagasaki Prefecture