Japanese translator Michael Gurner, has just translated an intriguing short book which was a memory methods guide used in Japan, published in 1771.
I was pointed to this by someone knowing how interested I am in these things, and contacted Michael yesterday because I found the book so interesting and want to find out more about memory methods as used in Asia. We are now in discussions about a number of aspects of unpublished works on Japanese memory techniques.
I would love to discuss Asian memory methods with anyone on this forum.
Secret Memory Techniques [mono oboe no hiden] was published in the twelfth month of the eighth year of the Meiwa era [1771] in KyÅtoāa centre of Japanese culture for over 1000 years.
Seisui-sensei (teacher Seisui) orally dictated the techniques, which were scribed by TÅ IsshÅ.
Book 1 was intended for everyday people, particularly those teaching children. Book 2āpublished the following year [1772]āintroduced techniques for memorising complex numbers, perhaps intended for advanced learners.
Some of the memory techniques in these books resemble those reportedly used in Japan around 4000 years ago, such as assigning numbers to different parts of the body to assist memory recall. Some bear a resemblance to those used by ninja in the feudal era, such as the technique of using familiar objects to assist recall. Some resemble those introduced by Europeans in ancient times, such as the method of loci and the memory palace technique. Also, there are references in Book 1 to Chinese literature, suggesting some of the techniques might have also been used in China to aid with the memorisation of key texts.
Book 1 and Book 2 [translation coming soon] provide much more than memory techniquesāthey take the modern day reader on a fascinating journey of cultural discovery.
I am also particularly interested in the use of narrative scrolls, Chinese handscrolls, Japanese story Scrolls including Emakimono or anything similar. They seem to have been used like the Australian Aboriginal sandtalk, slowly revealed illustrations to accompany lengthy stories which encode information.
I am learning Chinese and have become intrigued by all aspects of memory work in China and Japan.
I would appreciate anything pointing me to more in this field.
Iād like to learn more about this, too. Itās fascinating that Japanese, for the longest time, had no written language and pressed written Chinese into service. Interesting that someone speaking only Chinese and someone speaking only Japanese can communicate by writing.
Tangentially
In Japan, the end of the year is celebrated with a call to forget ā sort of.
āA bÅnenkai (åæ幓ä¼, literally āforget the year gatheringā) is a Japanese drinking party that takes place at the end of the year and is generally held among groups of co-workers or friends.ā
Coworkers have a party. Get drunk. And publicly vent and criticize their bossesā¦ for the purpose of, when they return to work, they are embarrassed by their remarks and pledge to work even harder to make up for their indiscretions.
I learned that in Korea they have a song of the multiplication tables similar to the ABC song in English. Koreans can rattle off the times tables at great speed.
How interesting. Thank you. As a result of your comment, I went and looked up the history of the Japanese script. The relationship with Chinese in intriguing. I want to learn more.
But first, Iām going to try out the body system in Secret Memory Techniques. I have done a body system before, but this is more comprehensive and wonāt just be my version but based on something that was taught and used centuries ago in a very foreign culture.
I love the way it all relates to history, and then to culture such as the end of year forgetting parry. So much fun to be had!
@bjoern.gumboldt I was on a flight to Tokyo 35 years ago and sat with a Chinese person on my left and a Japanese person on my right and while we all spoke English in various fluencies, my neighbors resorted to writing in Chinese characters at times.
A couple of years after that, I wrote a series of books on learning Japanese kanji which is borrowed from the non-simplified versions of Chinese writing. Kanji with fewer strokes are the same in Chinese.
Thatās a great story. I am fascinated by all aspects of memory systems and Asian cultures because it is often so different and yet, because we use the same brain structures, the fundamentals are the same.
Amazon says the Kanji is currently unavailable and the Kana is $145 US - plus their exorbitant postage to Australia so around $300 AUS. Is it possible to buy it from you directly at a much lower price? But not if your production costs are that huge. I have no desire to rip you off!
I am intrigued by the familiarity of so many of the characters from Chinese but also want to see the Kanji and the memory methods you use. I use the stories more, similar to Heisig, but not quite the same. I have aphantasia, so stories work better than images, but I want to understand the various methods and how well images would work for me conceptually.
I have Chineasy. All very intriguing. Thank you for your comments.
I was replying to a message about Kana being in flux, and I think I actually removed it. I canāt see it now. I am so sorry. I didnāt even know I could do that. Can you post again?
I am in no hurry and will happily wait until it is published again.
The 16th-century Jesuit missionary to China Matteo Ricci wrote a treatise on memory called Xi Guo Ji Fa (č„æå½č®°ę³), which translated and adapted the method of loci as expounded in the Ad Herennium to Chinese. Itās fascinating. He explains how the Chinese language is much more suited to method of loci than Latin because the script is pictorial in nature. He shows how the āsix scriptsā (or six ways that words are formed in Chinese) correspond to different methods of creating memory images. Unfortunately, it has no complete English translation as far as Iām aware. Iāve only read it in Chinese. But I believe there is a German translation of it.
Really interested in this. I bought and started The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci by Jonathan D. Spence but it got very violent fast and didnāt seem to have much to do with memory palaces. So I stopped. I wasnāt learning Chinese back then. Maybe itās time to get that out again. Hopefully it will contain something of what you talk about @bpinkall. Maybe I gave up much too early, but I hate violent stuff.
Yeah, the title of Spenceās book is misleading. Iāve read that book, and itās not really about memory at all. Itās just a biography of Matteo Ricci. In the book he references the book Iām talking about, but it certainly is not a translation of that book, and he barely talks about its contents.
Iād love to see this, even if it is in Chinese. That would give me something to aim for, although it is probably Traditional and I am doing Simplified.
Google č„æå½č®°ę³ format:pdf
first link it is I think, by the age of it, must be free of copyright
So I have it. Now to learn to read it. I recognise quite a few of the characters.
The trouble is that recognising characters and even knowing which form what words is not the same as translation. Thatās another whole level of nuance and understanding.
But meanwhile, I have Michael Gurnerās translation of the Japanese Secret Memory Methods to implement. I really want to do the body system. I am pretty good on memory palaces, and the more sophisticated Indigenous versions such as Songlines. But my body system memory method isnāt as good as this one, nor as decorative!
Orthodox Christians use iconography to pass down the Christian tradition that is lost in word and quite literally in translation from Latin, germanic languages, greek etc., explaining the christian teachings in picture to augment the Word. I just started to look into this and your scrolls refrence made me think of this. Some refrences made to this on ancient faith ministries podcast and website. Iām trying to explore icons further as a memory tool and to strengthen my faith.
Iāve been working on-again, off-again at learning Japanese and spent quite a while looking at mnemonic techniques with respect to it and kanji in particular. Iāve done a reasonably thorough, though not exhaustive search on the topic with respect to titles in English.
I had come across Rowleyās book along with a few others, though generally theyāve only got a few hundred examples, usually meant for early learners. One of my favorite more comprehensive texts was:
Henshall, Kenneth G. A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters. 1st ed, 7th Printing. Tokyo, Japan: Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc., 1988.
It is much more comprehensive and has some incredibly useful descriptions of kanji, how they relate to other kanji (pictographically), as well as additional subtle meanings and what I would almost call āmini-storiesā about the words, origins and their development over time, which for me made them much easier to recall and use. These descriptions also included some scholarly mentions as well as interesting Japanese historical and cultural context that also slowly build up to something bigger over time. He cleverly links and interlinks various words together to build up meanings over time as well. In addition to this, he included specific mnemonic phrases to make the kanji easier to remember. (Many of these become cumulative and rely on knowledge of previous words and pictograms.) Iāll note that later editions were somewhat similar, but the incredibly rich stories were significantly pared down or removed making them less valuable, at least to me. He covers 1,945 kanji including those up to the sixth grade and general use kanji which he individually numbers within the text (so one could also more easily create and cross link them within their own memory palace/journey/songline.) Given the relationship of Japanese with Chinese, perhaps similar texts may exist for Chinese?
Thanks for this, Chris. I am really interested in whatever you have learnt for using memory techniques and Japanese. I have been looking at all the memory resources for Chinese / Mandarin. The Henshall book looks similar to the Heisig one for Hanzi:
I have been working on my own memory system combining both characters and pinyin. I am using a Person-Action system for the initials and finals in pinyin with pronunciation built into my choices of Persons (I actually use animals) and of the Actions - I donāt think Japanese works that way, so that probably made no sense. I use the direction of the action to give the tone. I gather Japanese doesnāt use tones. The PA gives me a story starter.
I was very much influenced by the article about learning the radicals first, which would apply to the kanji as well. Is that what you have done?
I then have a memory palace for the radicals for the characters, which must be the same as Chinese for the kanji. I already have a story starter from the pinyin, and the radical for the character from the location, and add the other components for the character using additions to the mini-story (I like that term for it) much as I think Henshall is doing.
Once someone has all their radicals in place, and the set of Person and Actions, then they can create the mnemonic for any character or word (it works for multiple syllable words). They can then use it with any language course adding words and characters in any order, rather than having to follow the order in a book such as Henshall or Heisig.
I am just refining the system, and testing thoroughly, and will write it up.
I want to know so much more about how the characters evolved, and the relationship with Japanese. So much to learn!
That may not have made any sense, especially if you arenāt used to pinyin. But I wrote it anyway!
