Before calculators, before the abacus, there were bamboo sticks and two hands.
加算する (kasan suru) means "to add up. " Its kanji are a 3,000-year-old math lesson. 加 (ka) combines mouth (口) with force (力): lending your strength to help someone. From reinforcing an ally to adding numbers, 加 became the universal symbol for "to add. " 算 (san) shows bamboo (竹) above two hands arranging counting rods: thin sticks that were East Asia's first calculator, centuries before the abacus. Together, 加算する (kasan suru) literally means "add by arranging counting rods. "