For there is a story about an old man who lived during the Edo period remembering using sangi (arithmetic blocks) around the time of the Taiko kenchi (Hideyoshi TOYOTOMI's nationwide land survey), and also for the fact that the method for calculating square roots recorded in "Jinkoki" is similar to calculations using sangi, it is thought that sangi was used as a primary tool for calculation up until just before the Edo period.
江戸時代の古老が太閤検地のころは算木を使った、と回想しており、また『塵劫記』の開平計算が算木による方法に近いことから、江戸時代直前まで算木が優勢であったと思われる。