A majority of the population had developed a great sense for numbers, and strong soroban advocates believe that the rapid economic development during the Edo Period is a result of the spread of soroban techniques at that time.Ĥ. The rulers and people realized the value of the soroban techniques it was an excellent way to develop math skills and to calculate accurately and quickly.
The use of the soroban spread most rapidly during the 17th century, or Edo Period, and it greatly contributed to the education of the general public. The Chinese soroban was brought into Japan during the 15th and 16th centuries, but the Japanese removed the two added beads. This new soroban became widely used throughout China after the 13th century. The Chinese changed the system slightly by adding a bead above the bar and another below. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Chinese transformed the plate with grooves and buttons into a wooden frame with rods, a horizontal bar, and sliding oval beads. The Roman soroban was brought into China during the Han Era by way of the Silk Road. There was a bar across the grooves with one button above the bar and four below. The Romans inscribed grooves on a metal plate and put buttons in the grooves. The roots of the Japanese soroban are seen in the Roman instrument. About 500 years later, the Romans adopted and improved it. The ancient Egyptians and Greeks adopted the concepts and made a primitive soroban by spreading sand on a board and making grooves in the sand with their finger. Soroban concepts date back 5,000 years to the Babylonians. The soroban did not always exist in its present form. The standard Japanese soroban used today has 23 rods with 5 beads each –1 above the bar and 4 below. It has vertical rods with sliding beads and a fixed bar across the rods. This thought raises many questions: What is a soroban? Where did it come from? What role has it played in our changing modern society, more specifically, Japan’s? Why has Japan placed such a high value on it? Where is it going?Ī soroban is a rectangular wooden instrument used to do calculations based on the decimal system. Strong believers in the soroban even claim that soroban techniques are an essential element of Japan’s culture. Soroban, commonly called the abacus in English, is considered the first calculator and has played a significant role in the cultural and educational development in Japan.