What did the abacus say to the adding machine?
October 12, 2024 7:41 PM Subscribe
Best answer: Coming at this from my rudimentary Japanese but the first image is upside down — if you turn it over, looks to me like the carved character to the left-most side is 万 (“man,” the ten thousand unit), then next to it is 十 (ten), then 百 (hundred), then another 十 (ten), then 円 (“en” or yen). So, digit markers for calculation.
The second image looks like 姫路乾物株式會社 “Himeji Kanbutsu Kabushiki-gaisha” or… Himeji Dried Foods Corporation, or possibly Himeji Preserved/Packaged/ Dehydrated/Dessicated Products Corporation (I’m not exactly sure of the official name nuance).
Looks like this is a different (possibly older?) model than the popular 1:4 bead model that apparently (thanks Wikipedia!) became popular in the 1940s, since this has five beads on the bottom.
posted by cluebucket at 9:04 PM on October 12 [5 favorites]
The second image looks like 姫路乾物株式會社 “Himeji Kanbutsu Kabushiki-gaisha” or… Himeji Dried Foods Corporation, or possibly Himeji Preserved/Packaged/ Dehydrated/Dessicated Products Corporation (I’m not exactly sure of the official name nuance).
Looks like this is a different (possibly older?) model than the popular 1:4 bead model that apparently (thanks Wikipedia!) became popular in the 1940s, since this has five beads on the bottom.
posted by cluebucket at 9:04 PM on October 12 [5 favorites]
The one between 万 and 百 is probably 千 (1000) with the upper stroke obscured….
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:47 PM on October 13 [1 favorite]
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:47 PM on October 13 [1 favorite]
« Older Mystery object ID, has keyring | Do you use your smart phone as your primary alarm... Newer »
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
posted by flabdablet at 8:12 PM on October 12 [16 favorites]