Emily Chan
In 2001, a strip of wood was unearthed in the ruins of Fujiwara-kyō, which served as the capital city of imperial Japan between 694 and 710 C.E.
At first, it did not seem like the piece of wood was anything special, but further examination revealed that it was actually part of a 1,300-year-old multiplication table. It may even represent the oldest multiplication table found in Japan.
The ruins of Fujiwara-kyō can be found in what is now Kashihara in Japan’s Nara Prefecture, which is located along the country’s southeastern Pacific coastline.
The wooden strip was roughly six inches in length and half an inch in width. It was carved with some simple equations and was likely used by a government official.
The strip was discovered in what might once have been the office of an “Emon-fu” guard, who was a government worker in charge of security and administrative duties.
A team of researchers from the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties studied the strip under infrared light and were able to make out the equations, which included “9 x 9 = 81,” “4 x 9 = 36,” and “6 x 8 = 48.”
The equations were written in kanji, Chinese characters that were used in the Japanese writing system. They appear to be part of a larger multiplication table that has been lost with time.
“If the multiplication table was whole, the wooden tablet would measure 33 centimeters in length with all the equations written out,” said Kuniya Kuwata, a senior researcher at the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties.
“I initially thought Japanese multiplication charts only had two to three equations per line, so I was genuinely surprised to find one with so many, similar to those in China and Korea.”
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
