According to the memoir of a western teacher who taught at Kaigun Denshu-sho (the Naval School in Edo) at the end of the Edo period, Japanese people were strong in algebra, but they were slow to understand geometry.
幕末、海軍伝習所で教えた外国人教官の追憶によると、日本人は代数の理解は早かったが、幾何は中々進まなかったという。