Description: This piece measures 11.5 inches long by 4.38 inches wide and about 1.38 inches thick. Soroban or an abacus is a type of calculator used in banks, businesses and at homes for over 450 years in Japan. Encased in a wooden frame and suspended with the bamboo rods, the top beads represent fives and bottom beads represent ones. Each column represents a decimal point and beads are counted by sliding them on the rods. When one of the columns is set as the ones column, in this case the right side and the 4th column from the right, the next adjacent to the left becomes the tens column, then hundreds, thousands, ten thousands and so on. The decimal fraction can be displayed on the right side of the ones column as well. In Japan, the art of using the abacus has been carefully cultivated. In 1928, the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry established standardized abacus examinations and many millions of people had been participating to take the test to be certified. Although computers now carry out complex calculations, the abacus is still used in offices, shops alongside computers and electronic calculators even today. Abacus is also a very useful tool in general mathematics education because of its concrete visible display of numbers by beads that enable students to grasp of numbers, particularly in understanding place value. As a math tool, it has been continuously used by the blind and visually impaired in Japan since the first school for the blind was established late in the 19th century. This is an Itsutsudama type Soroban (five beaded). The earlier prototype abacus consists of a rectangular wooden frame divided into two parts by a beam, with two rows of 5- beads in the upper deck instead of one bead like this particular piece and five 1-beads in the lower deck called the Mutsudama type Soroban. This is probably the original style when it came from China and because the Chinese unit of weight was base sixteen count so that 15 numbers in each column were needed. In the early Meiji Period (1868-1912), this style was slightly modified with only one 5-bead in the upper deck, called the Itsutsudama Soroban. By around 1880 most people had switched to this style from the older Chinese style. In the 1930’s, yet another modification was implemented by reducing the lower deck to just four 1-beads, called the Yotsudama Soroban. This was because one 5-bead and four 1-beads were considered sufficient to do all the calculations. When primary school textbooks were revised in 1935, the four-beaded Soroban became standard. The inscription on the back is nearly worn off and its overall condition is still quite good with an age from the early 1930's.
Price: 39.95 USD
Location: San Lorenzo, California
End Time: 2024-12-08T17:30:46.000Z
Shipping Cost: 8.95 USD
Product Images
Item Specifics
Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 60 Days
Refund will be given as: Money Back
Brand: Unbranded
Year: 1930's
Age Level: 8-11 Years, 12-16 Years, 17 Years & Up
Country/Region of Manufacture: Japan
