Why did Yoshida Mitsuyoshi include unsolved difficult problems in Jingoki?

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East Asian mathematics Counting boards and markers, or counting rods, were used in China to solve systems of linear equations. This is an example from the 1st century ce.

Yoshida Mitsuyoshi included unsolved "difficult problems" in the 1641 edition of his work, Jingoki, to serve as challenges for other mathematicians to solve. By recommending that these problems be posed to the mathematical community, he initiated a tradition of intellectual competition reminiscent of the challenges seen in Renaissance Europe.

This practice played a pivotal role in stimulating the development of mathematics in Japan. It encouraged mathematicians to seek out new methods of solution and to study older techniques, such as counting-rod computations, which ultimately helped them advance beyond the classical methods and fostered a vibrant, independent mathematical tradition.1