Warazan

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Example of warazan at the Museum of Science, Tokyo University of Science
Instruction to use warazan to record the level of tax assessed, in the Yaeyama-jima Kuramoto Kujichō (1873 copy of the 1857 original); the fourth to sixth characters in the fifth line from the right read「わら算」(University of the Ryukyus Library)[1][2]

Warazan (藁算) was a system of record-keeping using knotted straw at the time of the Ryūkyū Kingdom.[3][4] In the Southern Ryukyuan languages of the Sakishima Islands it was known as barazan and on Okinawa Island as warazani or warazai.[5] Formerly used in particular in relation to the "head tax", it is still to be found in connection with the annual Itoman Giant Tug-of-War (糸満大綱引), to record the amount of miki or sacred sake dedicated.[1]

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