Kiyoshi Matsuzaki (1914–2000) was the man who stood as the final human barrier against the machine. In November 1946, at the Ernie Pyle Theatre in Tokyo, he faced off against the US Army’s best operator and a fully automatic Friden electric calculator.
Armed with only a traditional soroban made of wood and bone, Matsuzaki performed a “Battle of the Centuries”. As the crowd watched in stunned silence, his ancient clicking beads consistently outpaced the whirring of the electric motor. Winning four out of the five rounds, Matsuzaki completely dismantled the myth of mechanical superiority.