Mnemonic goroawase system
Encyclopedia
Japanese wordplay relies on the nuances of the Japanese language
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

 and Japanese script for humorous effect.

Japanese double entendres have a rich history in Japanese entertainment, because of the way that Japanese words can be read to have several different meanings and pronunciations (homographs). Also, several different spellings for any pronunciation and wildly differing meanings (homophones). Often replacing one spelling with another (synonyms) can give a new meaning to phrases.

Goroawase

is an especially common form of Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

 wordplay whereby homophonous
Homophone
A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. The words may be spelled the same, such as rose and rose , or differently, such as carat, caret, and carrot, or to, two, and too. Homophones that are spelled the same are also both homographs and homonyms...

 words are associated with a given series of letters, numbers or symbols, in order to associate a new meaning with that series. The new words can be used to express a superstition
Superstition
Superstition is a belief in supernatural causality: that one event leads to the cause of another without any process in the physical world linking the two events....

 about certain letters or numbers. More commonly, however, goroawase is used as a mnemonic
Mnemonic
A mnemonic , or mnemonic device, is any learning technique that aids memory. To improve long term memory, mnemonic systems are used to make memorization easier. Commonly encountered mnemonics are often verbal, such as a very short poem or a special word used to help a person remember something,...

 technique, especially in the memorization of numbers such as dates in history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

, scientific constant
Physical constant
A physical constant is a physical quantity that is generally believed to be both universal in nature and constant in time. It can be contrasted with a mathematical constant, which is a fixed numerical value but does not directly involve any physical measurement.There are many physical constants in...

s, and phone numbers.

Numeric substitution

Every digit has a set of possible phonetic values, due to the variety of valid Japanese (kun'yomi and on'yomi), and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

-origin pronunciations for numbers in Japanese. Often readings are created by taking the standard reading and retaining only the first syllable (for example roku becomes ro). Goroawase substitutions are well known as mnemonics, notably in the selection of memorable telephone numbers for commercial services, and in the memorization of numbers such as years in the study of history.

Mnemonics are formed by selecting a fitting reading for a given number from the list below.
Number Japanese kunyomi readings Japanese onyomi readings Transliterations from English readings
0 maru, ma rei, re o, zero, ze
1 hitotsu, hito, hi ichi, i wan
2 futatsu, fu, futa ni tsū, tū
3 mitsu, mi san, sa surī
4 yon, yo, yotsu shi
5 itsutsu, itsu go, ko faibu, faivu
6 mutsu, mu roku, ro shikkusu
7 nana, nanatsu, na shichi sebun, sevun
8 yatsu, ya hachi, ha, ba eito
9 kokonotsu, ko kyu, ku nain
10 ju, ji ten

As mnemonics

1492 (the year of discovery of America) can be memorized as: iyo! kuni ga mieta! (derived as follows: i (1) yo (4)! ku (9) ni (2) (ga mieta)!), meaning: "Wow! I can see land!" or i (1) yo (4)! ku (9) ni (2), It's good country.

23564 (23 hours, 56 minutes, 4 seconds, the length of a sidereal day) can be read "ni-san-go-ro-shi", which sounds very similar to "nii-san koroshi" (兄さん殺し), or in English killing one's brother
Fratricide
Fratricide is the act of a person killing his or her brother....

.

3.14159265 (Pi
Pi
' is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of any circle's circumference to its diameter. is approximately equal to 3.14. Many formulae in mathematics, science, and engineering involve , which makes it one of the most important mathematical constants...

) can be read "san-i-shi-i-ko-ku-ni-mu-ko"(産医師異国に向こう), meaning "An obstetrician goes to foreign country.".

Other examples

4649 "yoroshiku" (derived as follows: "yo" (4) "ro" (6) "shi" (4) "ku" (9)) means: "Nice to meet you."

18782 can be read "i-ya-na-ya-tsu" (いやなやつ) – meaning unpleasant guy

37564 can be read "mi-na-go-ro-shi" (みなごろし), meaning massacre, or kill them all.

893 can be read "ya-ku-za" (やくざ) or Yakuza
Yakuza
, also known as , are members of traditional organized crime syndicates in Japan. The Japanese police, and media by request of the police, call them bōryokudan , literally "violence group", while the yakuza call themselves "ninkyō dantai" , "chivalrous organizations". The yakuza are notoriously...

. It is traditionally a bad omen for a student to receive this candidate number for an examination.

573 stands for "ko-na-mi" or Konami
Konami
is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...

. This number appears in many Konami telephone numbers and as a high score in Konami games.

765 stands for "na-mu-ko" or Namco
Namco
is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of...

. Derivatives of this number can be found in dozens of Namco produced video games.

.59 "ten go ku" is the title of a song from the Konami game beatmania IIDX
Beatmania IIDX
is a series of rhythm video games and the sequel to Beatmania that was first introduced by Konami in Japan on February 26, 1999. IIDX has since spawned over 19 arcade releases and over 13 console releases on the Sony PlayStation 2...

. "Tengoku" (天国) means heaven.

3923 "san kyu ni san", or "Thank you Nissan!" (Nii-san means elder brother, so it is more like "Thank you, brother."). Found in the Online Comics of NBC TV Show Heroes, for which Nissan is a sponsor.

634 "mu sa shi", intentionally set the height of Tokyo Sky Tree sounds like Musashi Province
Musashi Province
was a province of Japan, which today comprises Tokyo Prefecture, most of Saitama Prefecture and part of Kanagawa Prefecture. It was sometimes called . The province encompassed Kawasaki and Yokohama...

 or Miyamoto Musashi
Miyamoto Musashi
, also known as Shinmen Takezō, Miyamoto Bennosuke or, by his Buddhist name, Niten Dōraku, was a Japanese swordsman and rōnin. Musashi, as he was often simply known, became renowned through stories of his excellent swordsmanship in numerous duels, even from a very young age...

, easy to remember among Japanese.

801 "ya o i" or yaoi
Yaoi
In careful Japanese enunciation, all three vowels are pronounced separately, for a three-mora word, . The English equivalent is . also known as Boys' Love, is a Japanese popular term for female-oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homoromantic male relationships, usually created by...

, homosexual themed manga typically aimed at women

39 can be read as "san-kyu" (thank you); or"mi-ku", as in Hatsune Miku
Hatsune Miku
is a singing synthesizer application with a female persona, developed by Crypton Future Media. It uses Yamaha Corporation's Vocaloid 2 synthesizing technology. The name of the character comes from a fusion of the Japanese for , and future , referring to her position as the first of Crypton's...


In popular culture

Goroawase is used extensively in Mahou Shoujotai Arusu, where the main character introduces it as a method to more easily remember and cast spells.
This game is used in episode 400 of the series Detective Conan
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