Soroban
Videos
The soroban is an abacus developed in Japan. It is derived from the ancient Chinese suanpan, imported to Japan in the 14th century. Like the suanpan, the soroban is still used today, despite the proli
A modern soroban. The right side of the soroban represents the number 1234567890, each column indicating one digit, with the lower beads representing "ones" and the upper beads "fives".
A suanpan (top) and a soroban (bottom). The two abaci seen here are of standard size and have thirteen rods each.
A dual soroban-calculator, Sharp Elsi Mate EL-8048 Sorokaru, produced from 1979
An abacus that uses colored sliders instead of beads. Red represents the value 5; green represents the value 1. The value in the abacus is 4025.
Japanese mathematics
Videos
Japanese mathematics denotes a distinct kind of mathematics which was developed in Japan during the Edo period. The term wasan, from wa and san, was coined in the 1870s and employed to distinguish nat
The soroban in Yoshida Koyu's Jinkōki (1641 edition)
