Soroban: The Japanese Abacus
The Soroban is the Japanese abacus. It can be used for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. A skilled Soroban user can perform addition and subtraction more quickly than a person with a pocket calculator. After mastering the Soroban, many people are actually able to do huge calculations quickly with just their fingers and an "imaginary" soroban.
The Soroban is very important in Japanese culture, and is commonly used in Japanese business even today.
Using the Soroban
Each rod of the current standard Japanese Soroban has 1 heaven (upper) bead with a value of 5 and 4 earth (lower) beads each with a value one. Usually a Soroban has 13, 21, 23 or 27 rods.
A Soroban is set to zero (or cleared) when the four earth beads on each rod are all pushed to the bottom, and the heaven bead on each rod is pushed to the top. The proper way to clear a Soroban is to tip it towards you bringing all the earth beads to clear, then lay the Soroban back down flat and push all the heaven beads up to clear with a single sweep of the back of your index finger.
It's going to take a little practice, but just like martial arts, playing an instrument or driving, it will become very natural.
Below: a Soroban set to Pi (3.1415926535)
A Soroban is set to zero (or cleared) when the four earth beads on each rod are all pushed to the bottom, and the heaven bead on each rod is pushed to the top. The proper way to clear a Soroban is to tip it towards you bringing all the earth beads to clear, then lay the Soroban back down flat and push all the heaven beads up to clear with a single sweep of the back of your index finger.
It's going to take a little practice, but just like martial arts, playing an instrument or driving, it will become very natural.
Below: a Soroban set to Pi (3.1415926535)
Where to find a Soroban
Outside of Japan, the best way to get your hands on a Soroban is usually to find one at an estate/garage/tag/boot sale, or to just buy one on eBay. There are always some pretty nice ones on eBay and they usually sell at very reasonable prices.
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Soroban Links
- Flash Anzan
- Flash based Anzan drills for the Soroban. Allows you to choose the speed, amount of number to be added, and the number of digits of those numbers.
Soroban books on Amazon
A Guide to Good Calculation: How to Master Soroban-Japanese Abacus
Amazon Price: (as of 01/08/2010) 
Rongo to soroban (Sogyosha o yomu) (Japanese Edition)
Amazon Price: (as of 01/08/2010)
Soroban the Pocket Computer
Amazon Price: (as of 01/08/2010)
Soroban: The Pocket Computer(Complete Instructions For Use)
Amazon Price: (as of 01/08/2010)
SOROBAN The Japanese Abacus Its Use and Practice
Amazon Price: (as of 01/08/2010)
Soroban on Flickr
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