You are quite right about Chamberlain; his knowledge seems to have been
based entirely on visits to the Anthropological Institute of the Science
College of the Imperial University of Japan. Also, I note, for what it's
worth, that Chamberlain writes, "These symbols thus differ radically from
the system in vogue on the Luchuan islet of Yonakuni, which is pictorial and
ideographics so far as it goes." (Chamberlain 1898: 395). If you should
happen to track down any further information on their use in Yonaguni or
elsewhere in the Ryukyus, I'd very much like to know about it.

Steve Chrisomalis
forthright@...
http://phrontistery.50megs.com

----- Original Message -----
From: node_ue
To: qalam@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, December 15, 2003 2:08 PM
Subject: Re: "kaida" pictographic script and "suuchuuma" numerals


--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Stephen Chrisomalis" <forthright@...>
wrote:
> I know this message has spawned quite a discussion on the nature of
scripts
> (writing systems?), but I have some specific factual information on
the
> suuchuma numerals that may be of use. There is an interesting if
very
> outdated article on the suuchuma numerals:
>
> Chamberlain, Basil Hall. 1898. A quinary system of notation
employed in
> Luchu on the wooden tallies termed sho-chu-ma. Journal of the
> Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 27: 383-395.
>
> As far as I can tell, this is the only paper on the subject in any
Western
> language (I have no Japanese). Chamberlain indicates that he was
told that
> even then, the system was no longer in use.
>
> I include a section on these numerals in my dissertation, "The
Comparative
> History of Numerical Notation". However, my only real source is
> Chamberlain. If anyone has additional information, I'd be very
interested
> in learning more about this very peculiar notation system.
>
> Steve Chrisomalis
> forthright@...
> http://phrontistery.50megs.com

Thank you very much for your informative post.

I'm thinking that perhaps "sho-chu-ma" used to be used all over the
Ryukyus (since AFAIK Chamberlain was pretty much based from the Big
Island), and that they may have still been in in use in Yonaguni
(yonakuni) when Chamberlain wrote that, but perhaps he wasn't aware
of it. (Yonaguni was and still is the most remote part of the Ryukyus)

Now I'm wondering if the numerals were the same throughout the
Ryukyus, or if there were major variations by region...

best wishes,
Mark




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