Hisako Takahashi

“Curious and far from satisfactory ” and sometimes serious circumstances will occur in one’s daily life by forgetting things, if it is not just forgetting to take handkerchiefs with one. Life indeed is a succession of remembering things: we have to remember faces, names, places, spellings, rules, numbers etc. But we forget, and this is where mnemonic devices come in.

Lewis Carroll wrote Memoria Technica (1875) to help memorise “logarithms of primes up to 41”. Naturally, as a mathematician Carroll was interested in making a method to remember numbers which might help study of the subject. Carroll’s concern with memory, however, was not limited to mathematical numbers. He used the method to recall the specific gravities of metals, too. To remember gold’s gravity (19.36), for instance, he made a rhyme: “Would you have enough Gold for your rents? / Invest in the seven per cents.” The last four consonants (c, n, t, and s in “cents”) of the couplet represent the digits 1, 9, 3 and 6. To recall the biblical event of 1495 B.C. when the Israelites left Egypt and the year 1455 B.C. when they entered Canaan, the land of promise, Carroll wove the two years into the second and the fourth lines in the same way: “‘Shout again! We are free!’ / Says the loud voice of glee. / ‘Nestle home like a dove,’ / Says the low voice of love.” He also made rhymes for the foundations of the Colleges, according to his diary (31 May 1877). To memorise the year of Columbus’s discovery of America, Carroll produced a mnemonic: “Columbus sailed the world around, / Until America was FOUND.” The last three consonants (f, n, d) represent the digits 4, 9 and 2 of the year 1492.

Long before Memoria Technica was written, readers of Alice in Wonderland might have realised the important role memory plays in the Alice books. In the opening chapter of the first Alice book, for example, the girl, while going down the rabbit hole, wonders if her family will remember to give her cat milk. Finding a bottle on the glass table, Alice stops and tries to find out if the drink is safe, thinking of children getting into danger just because “they would not remember the simple rules” taught by their friends. The first change of size makes her nervous and lets her wonder if she might end like a candle. And she tries to imagine something about the candle, and yet it makes her fancy something “she could not remember having seen”: what the flame of a candle looks like after the candle is blown out. She then forgets the key on the table which could not be reached because of her shrunken size. In tears Alice remembers what she did in the past in such a situation. This is followed by her forgetting many other things. She forgets the comparative form of the adjective and says “curiouser and curiouser” instead of “more curious” which is “good English” as Carroll put it. The curious experience makes her feel as if she lost her own identity. To identify herself she goes through her own memory tests ranging from what she did the day before, how she felt, to whether she could remember things she learnt in mathematics, geography, and music lessons. Forgetting things not only causes inconveniences but even makes Alice feel afraid of losing identity.

Carroll ends the story of Alice by writing “how she would feel..., remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days”. The story was written based not only on the memories of his personal relationship with the child, but on readers’ memories which are incessantly tested whether it be school subjects, the rules of grammar, the rules of everyday life and the rules of a certain place such as a court. Without having these things correctly in their mind, readers cannot fully enjoy the writer’s nonsense. Carroll’s nonsense, after all, lies in his witty plays on the knowledge his contemporaries had in common.

Judging from his methodical ways of keeping records, Carroll was no doubt concerned with memory in general. Both his diaries and numerous letters would not have been kept without the purpose of retaining his memory or the fear of losing it. In one of his letters to his sister in 1849, for instance, Carroll wrote: “For fear I should forget it I will here mention...” And in 1851, to the same sister, he conveyed his aunts’ love at the beginning of his letter “for fear I forget it again”. The advent of photography and his great interest in it might have helped him with the new method of remembering things, for he could capture momentary, fleeting phases of life and keep his photographs in an album as fast as he could keep notes in a piece of paper.

Memoria Technica shows that Carroll devised this system with considerable insight into the mechanism of memory as well as deep understanding of language. It also shows, like his many other devices, a playful mind.

In Carroll’s system each number 1 to 10 is represented by one of the two consonants he allotted, thus making it possible to turn numbers into letters. Turning numbers into letters itself is not Carroll’s invention. As he explains himself, his device is a modification of Richard Grey’s Memoria Technica; or a New Method of Artificial Memory (1730). The difference is his use of consonants alone instead of vowels and consonants, both of which Grey used. The merit of Carroll’s device lies in its flexibility of adding vowels to the consonant scheme to create a word that fits in a simple rhyme.

To represent each number Carroll exercised his knowledge of French, Latin and Greek together with a visual effect of letters. For number 1, for example, b and c were given according to alphabetical order. To represent number 2 by “d” from “deux” (or “duo” in his revised Memoria Technica), number 3 by “t” from “trois” (or “tres”), number 4 by “q” from “quatre” (or “quatuor”), number 7 by “p” and “m” from “septem”, number 8 by “h” from “huit” and by “k” from “okto”, he employed French, Latin and Greek. Other letters were largely taken from spelt out words corresponding the numbers: “w” for number 2, “f” for number 4, “s” and “x” for number 6, “n” for number 9, “z” and “r” for zero or 10. His choice of “g” for number 9 was solely visual, “from its shape”.

The intriguing thing about mnemonics is that numbers can be turned into letters. There are alphabets to represent numbers: I represents 1, and V, X, L, C, D, M represent 5, 10, 50, 100, 500, and 1000 respectively. Carroll made use of the Roman numerals “l” and “v” to represent number 5.

The use of “j” for number 3 was like completing a jigsaw puzzle: other than “t” Carroll could not find a letter that fitted logically, so he completed all the other numbers and was left with “j” which fitted as the last piece in a jigsaw puzzle.

Carroll knew that the use of rhymes helps retain memory easily when he thought of putting the word in a rhymed couplet and putting it at the end of the line. The mnemonic for the year 1492 was made by finding the word “found” by arranging the consonants for 492 (1 left out as obvious) and adding vowels “o” “u”. Obviously the idea of “discovery” was in his mind to make association with the event and this let him choose “found” to rhyme with “around”.

Interestingly enough, the mnemonic rhyme Carroll devised is similar to the Japanese device to memorise the same historic year 1492 except that Japanese one is more prosaic and practical: Japanese children would chant “I-yo-kuni-ga-mieta” meaning “Look, we found (can see)a land”. There is no linguistic connection between the English language and Japanese, but the solutions seem very much alike, describing the historical event connected with the year in the similar wording.

The similarity does not end there. When children learn the length of each month, English children have the familiar rhyme which goes “Thirty days hath September, April, June and November / (February has twenty-eight alone / All the rest have thirty-one/ Excepting leap-year, that’s the time/ When February days are twenty-nine)”, while Japanese children depend on a line “nishi(2,4)-muku(6,9)-samurai(11 from the shape of the Chinese character for samurai-warrior) sho-no-tsuki”, meaning that a samurai-warrior facing to the west, watching a small moon. The use of the same character for the words “month” and the “moon” in Japanese makes the association close and unforgettable. Brevity, perhaps, is characteristic of mnemonics in both languages and in any other languages for that matter.

The Japanese popular mnemonics is not so sophisticated as the one devised by Carroll in Memoria Technica, but there is a lot of room for anyone without much talent of composing verses or memory of the system to produce mnemonics. The use of this kind of mnemonics is often seen in commercials with the intention of giving the potential or regular customers the companies’ telephone numbers. People come across such commercials on the train, on television, in the newspaper and telephone directories. What are the rules working in the Japanese mnemonics for numbers? Or are there any rules at all?

The Japanese language also can link numbers with its letters, but in a different way. In Japanese, two ways of writing numbers are employed. One is Chinese characters called Kanji and the other is Arabic numerals. In the traditional vertical writing in which the letters are written from top to bottom and lines move from right to left, Chinese characters are used, while in the horizontal writing which is the way English is written both kinds of depiction are used. Besides there are basically two ways in counting numbers from 1 to 10. In the system native of Japan we count from 1 to 10 as “hi (or hitotsu), fu (or futatsu), mi (or mittsu), yo (or yottsu), itsu (or itsutsu), mu (or muttsu), nana (or nanatsu), ya (or yattsu), kokonotsu, to” and in the system originally from China “ichi, ni, san, shi, go, roku, shichi, hachi, ku (or kyu), ju”. The recent increasing use of foreign words adds to them the third way which is English though pronounced in Japanese style: “wan, tsu, suri, ho, faibu, sikkusu, sebun, eito, nain, ten”. Japanese is a language full of homophones. The numbers are no exceptions. Ichi (1), for example, reminds us of two words meaning: market and position, besides the one meaning the number itself. Ni (2) also reminds us of three words meaning nun, luggage, and red. San (3) has about ten words with ten different meanings: mountain, scatter, visit, produce, praise, sour, calculate, cedar, miserable, and umbrella.

English too is never short of examples of homophones. Some can be easily cited from the Alice books. The well-known one is that the mouse’s “long tale” was taken for his “long tail” by Alice. When the mouse used the word “not”, Alice thought of a “knot”. As far as numbers are concerned, there are a few words which are pronounced in the same way from 1 to 10: “won” for 1, “to” and “too” for 2, “for” for 4, and “ait”, “Ait” and “ate” for 8. However, there is a limit to the number of words to be created by this method. While English has seven homophones within ten numbers, Japanese has fifteen in three numbers alone. For shi (4), an ordinary dictionary (Iwanami’s Japanese Dictionary here) has as many as fifty-six entries besides the number itself. Go (5) has twenty-eight entries, and ko (5) fifteen entries. Roku (6) has four entries, and mu (6) six entries. Shichi (7) has two entries. Ya (8) has eight entries, and hachi (8) two entries. Ku (9) has six entries, and kyu (9) twenty-six entries. Ju (10) has ten entries. Even the borrowed English word for number 10, ten in Japanese, can have eight different Chinese characters meaning: heaven, shop, dot, rule, sable or ermine, to attach, to develop, and to roll.

The words cited above multiply by combining with other letters. For instance, ichi (1) alone makes over a hundred other words, when English “one” has fifteen or so words. English prefixes and suffixes are closer in the function. The prefixes “uni” or “mono” for 1, “bi” and “duo” for 2 have potential power of growing vocabulary.

Perhaps due to this nature of the language, mnemonics for numbers are easily invented and have become a part of Japanese culture. New ones are popping out all the time. As with often the case with culture, one rarely stops and thinks about the factors working behind the system. It seems worthwhile examining the existing mnemonics for numbers to find out the method, if there is any, among the seemingly whimsical arrangements of letters. Mnemonics for numbers are used to remember such things as historical dates, account numbers, birthdays and telephone numbers. Among them telephone numbers are easy to get samples, for they are there to be seen in the telephone directories while others are in mind and not easy to observe. The following is the examples of Japanese mnemonics for numbers observed in the Yokohama District Yellow Pages (YDYP)_.

Certain numbers are used in certain lines of business. Number 8 (“ha”-teeth), for example, looks popular among dentists. Number 26 (“furo”-bath) is for bath houses. Number 5 (“ko”-child) is for child-related businesses such as baby sitting and child-care centres. Therefore, it is not surprising that the fund-raising office of Unicef in Japan has 881052 (“hahatokoni”-for mothers and children) for their phone number. Number 28 (“niwa”-garden) is no doubt owned by gardeners. Numbers 9 (“kyu”-moxa cautering) and 89 (“harikyu”- cautering and acupuncture) are for the Eastern medical therapists. Other businesses which have numbers in common are masons’ 14 (“ishi”-stone), florists’ 87 (“hana”-flowers), bug busters’ 64 (“mushi”-bugs), pipe cleaners’ 32 (“mizu”-water), security-related firms’ 69 (“rokku”-lock) and car dealers’ 96 or 90 (“kuruma”-cars). Butchers’ 29 (“niku”-meat) and pawn shops’ 78 (“shichiya”-pawn shops) are also found in the directory.

Combination of “good” images and each job is typical of advertisements. Thus often used are 1114 (“ii-ishi”-good doctor), 307115 (“minna-ii-ko”-all good children), 4133( “yoi-mimi”-good ears), 4126( “yoi-furo”-good bath), 4190 (“yoi-kuruma”-good cars), and 1128 (“ii-niwa”-good garden). Marriage arrangers have 1152 (“ii-gofufu”-good husband and wife) or 1150 (“ii-goen”- good match). Such examples are countless. We could guess now what kind of advertisement it is if we see 11283 (“ii-tsubasa”-good wings). Answer is “an airline”. The same advertisement shows their reduced price as \17,000 (“i-na”-wow, good). This adds one more number to the meaning “good”.

Some numbers hint the nature of the business. Number 645 (“mujiko”-no accident) is really suitable for driving schools. Number 881 (“hayai”-swift) or 889 (“hayaku”-swiftly) are needed in a wide range of services.

If they are lucky, shops or companies can represent their names by numbers. “Fuji” is represented by number 22, “Iwai” by number 181, “Sanwa” by number 38, “Marusan” by 03, “Osakaya” by 038, “Komuro” by 566, “Miyako” by 385, “Hanii” by 821, and “Nikko” by 250.

Numbers 24 and 365 often mean that they are open for twenty-four hours and all the year round.

Carroll’s system is methodical in his unique way. In order to utilise his system we need to rack our brains to make rhymes and above all we have to remember the system itself. But the underlying idea is universally applicable. The way to find out suitable vowels to form words is, Carroll writes, “ad libitum” or at pleasure. If we could add pleasure or freedom, as the word “libitum” means, to what looks like a tedious process of memorisation in learning, we could replace rote memorisation with some meaningful, therefore memorable experience. Introduction of the factor of pleasure or freedom always encourages learning.

Mnemonic devices for numbers are handy in Japan. We can create our own mnemonics with a little knowledge of the system and a lot of playful mind. We can even make more than one mnemonics for the same number. For 4188, for instance, we can make “yoi-papa” (Good Papa / Father) and “yoi-haha” (Good Mother). For 7830583, “nayami-o-gohasan” (All troubles gone) and “nayami-to-iyami” (Troubles and sarcastic remarks). To remember which one for long will be another interesting aspect of the memory, yet too complicated to be discussed here. To memorise 1865, the year in which Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was first published, we could ponder what would be suitable and produce “daiya-rogo”(Dialogue) as one possibility. “What is the use of a book without pictures or conversations?” is what Alice thought and Carroll wrote the book full of interesting, often amusing conversations or dialogues.

What is the use of remembering numbers without letters and rhymes? Carroll’s Memoria Technica encourages us to try our hand at this old yet new device of mnemonics in Japan.

From a collection of mnemonics found in the Yokohama District Yellow Pages.

Number	How to read	Meaning
Dentists
4181	yoi-ha-ichi-ban	Good teeth are the best
647418	mushi-nashi-ii-ha	No decayed teeth, good teeth
822-4114	ha-ni-yoi-ishi	Dentist good for your teeth
648-418	mushiba-yoi-ha	Decayed teeth-Good teeth
825-5454	hani-ii-goshi-goshi	Good for teeth, brush, brush
8148	haisha	Dentist
Removal companies
0120-4-49852	omoi-ni-wa-shikkari-yoku-hakobu	Heavy articles carefully safely carried
365-881	365-nichi-hayai	365 days swift

154-085 hikkoshi-oyako-de Move together with your children

 154-117 hikkoshi-iina Move-Good

0810 ekusupaato Expert

871-871 hanai-hanai Hanai is the company’s name

754-371 hikkoshi-mina-ii Moving all good

821017 hanii-wa-iina Hanii (the company’s name) is good

0385 miyako Miyako is the company’s name

373250 minasan-nikko Everyone, Nikko (the company’s name)

00-6666 zero-zero-rokku-rokku-rokku-rokku Zero, zero , lock, lock, lock

4169 yoi-rokku Good lock

373769 mina-mina-rokku Everyone, lock

669881 rokku-hayai Lock swiftly

6116 rokku-ii-rokku Lock, good lock

696924 rokku-rokku-24-jikan Lock, lock 24 hours

8468-69 hashiru-wa-rokku Running lock (the company’s name)

190-11 ikuwa-hyaku-toban I’ll go, 110(Police)

0110 zero-hyaku-toban 0 and 110 (Police)

11819 ii-baiku Good bikes

819832 baikuya-san-ni To a bike shop

381906 saa-baiku-uro Let’s sell bikes

819554 baiku-koko-yo Bikes here

381990 saa-baiku-kure Now, give me a bike

307-645 minna-mujiko Everyone with no accident

117960 iina-kuruma I like cars

44-1859 yooshi-ippai-gookaku Good, many pass

327-960 sutekini-naraoo-kuruma Nicely learn driving

801-860 haai-haro Hi! Hello

039-909 oo-sankyu-gureggu Oh, thank you, Gregg (the school’s name)

4147 yoi-shina Good goods

17-8139 iina-hai-sankyu Good. Well, thank you

194268 ikuyo-furoya I’ll go to a bath house

1126 ii-furo Good bath

1010 sento Public bath house

3900 sankyu Thank you

349-889 miyoku-hayaku Clear and Quick

081-294 haai-fukushi Yes, welfare

2020 fure-fure Come on

360198 saron-ikuwa I’ll go to a salon

846-1107 hashiro-ii-onna Run, striking woman!

9696 kuro-guro Have a tan

333-2941 minasan-fuku-yoi Everyone, clothes good

533389 gomi-sassa-haku Sweep dirt swiftly

375-476 mina-koshi-yoku-naru Everyone gets better back

41-8942 yoi-hari-kyu-shiatsu Good acupuncture, moxa cauterising and

shiatsu (finger-pressure) therapy

312-1152 saiko-ni-ii-gofufu Super couple

312-1150 saiko-ni-ii-goen Super match

5-4150-4 itsumo-yoi-goen-yo Always good match

8743 hanayome-san Bride

752-5548 nakodo-ni-ii-yome Good bride for go-betweens

313-1150 sa-iza-ii-goen Let’s go to meet the right partner

780-228 shichiya-wa-fujiya Fujiya for pawn

111783 ichiban-ii-shichiyasan Best pawn shop