also: ごわさん
noun
starting over; going back to square one; calling off
Used when a plan, calculation, or effort is abandoned and reset to zero. Often appears in the phrase ご破算にする or ご破算になる.
計画がうまくいかず、すべてご破算になった。
The plan didn't work out, and everything went back to square one.
交渉はご破算にし
Let's call off the negotiations and start over from scratch.
noun
clearing an abacus
Original literal meaning: resetting an abacus to zero by clearing all beads. Now mainly a historical or explanatory sense.
そろばんのご破算は、すべての珠を払ってゼロに戻すことです。
Clearing an abacus means moving all the beads back to zero.
振り出し also means going back to the starting point, but it comes from board games (like backgammon) and emphasizes returning to the beginning of a process, while ご破算 emphasizes resetting to zero, often after a failure.
白紙に戻す means to return to a blank slate, often used for plans or decisions. ご破算 has a stronger nuance of abandoning or canceling something that was in progress.
From ご (honorific prefix) + 破算 (breaking calculation). Originally referred to clearing an abacus, later extended metaphorically to resetting plans or efforts.