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Description Old wooden Japanese abacus or soroban. This abacus was designed especially for merchants as many of the bead rows are identified with carved digit markers, while normal Japanese abacus have digit markers only every 3 or 4 rows. The upper part of the abacus is made of oak while the bottom part is made of boxwood. The beads are also made of wood and the bead shafts are lengths of carefully shaved bamboo. This particular soroban was probably manufactured between 1850 and 1930. This date range can be inferred due to the number of beads it contains. Soroban manufactured in Japan before 1850 included a 2/5 bead combination (2 beads on the upper deck and 5 beads on the lower deck). The Japanese formally changed to a 1/5 style in 1850 and then finally a 1/4 style in 1930 when all of the Japanese school text books were revised. This soroban has the 1/5 bead style. Due to it’s apparent age, this soroban was likely made exclusively with traditional Japanese hand tools instead of modern power tools. Tools such as the nokogiri (Japanese pull saw) and kana (block plane) may have been used to carefully cut and shape each wooden part and to create the delicate and expert joinery which have held the abacus together all these years. The abacus is in good condition though it does have marks and scratches and is worn from past use and has some dust accumulated on the bottom beneath the beads. Many modern Japanese still learn to use a soroban in school and some even prefer these …