Soroban

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".

The soroban (算盤, そろばん, counting tray) is an abacus developed in Japan. It is derived from the ancient Chinese suanpan, imported to Japan in the 14th century.[1][nb 1] Like the suanpan, the soroban is still used today, despite the proliferation of practical and affordable pocket electronic calculators.

  1. ^ Gullberg 1997, p. 169
  2. ^ Fernandes 2013


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