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abacus is invented as a counting tool to count large numbers
in ancient times. During Greek and Roman times, most of the abaci were
made of stones and metal. The popular form is a board with beads sliding
on wires in a frame. In the mid 16th century, the Chinese abacus which
had seven-bead in each column, two-bead in the upper deck and
five-bead in the lower deck, was introduced into Japan. It became very
popular and was used especially by Japanese merchants as a calculation
tool in business. In around 1930, Japanese abacus, called “Soroban,”
was modified into the modern configuration. It is made from wood, and
has five-bead in each column, one-bead in the upper deck and four-bead
in the lower deck. The Soroban/Abacus helps to perform mainly addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division.
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Soroban/Abacus was one of the necessary calculation tools before the
electric calculator was widely used in Japan. Yet, the Soroban/Abacus
has been an excellent educational tool for children to understand and
recognize numbers since its introduction. In addition, practicing Soroban/Abacus
gives you more opportunity to develop your mental calculation ability.
After mastering the Soroban/Abacus, you will need no calculator with you because
you are capable of calculating numbers by visualizing Soroban/Abacus
beads.
