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Interview with Hideaki Tomoyori
"Of course, I couldn't manage to memorize such a huge, irrational number simply by rote. Instead, I've broken
it down into short sequences of just ten numbers at a time. And then I associate the sound of each number with a
particular word. With the words made in sentences, I can remember particular images. So, for each group of ten numbers,
I think first of a single key word, then that key word reminds me of an image and a sentence, and then the sounds in
that sentence remind me of the exact sequence of numbers.
"For example, the number sequence three-nine in Japanese is pronounced san-kyu, and that sounds very like the word
sa-kyu, which mens "sand dune". If I picture a sand dune, I easily remember the numbers three and nine. And if I add
in other elements, like my wife standing in front of the sand dune by the bright sea, then those words in Japanese
can remind me of a whole string of ten numbers.
"No matter how many times you memorize something, you have to start over from the beginning if you let yourself forget
it all. To avoid the waste of effort, I realized the need for good timing in reviewing what I'd learned. I review at
longer and longer intervals - first, after a minute, then after ten minutes, then after a whole hour. I've found that
the very best time for review is when you feel that maybe you've forgotten just about 20 percent of what you've learned.
"As a child, like all other children, I did things like memorizing the names of train stations, or the names of all the
emperors in Japan's history. But I don't think I had an especially good memory. In fact, when I reached around the age
of 20, I wasn't able to memorize much of anything at all. In my college English class, I was told to memorize some of
Shakespeare's Hamlet, but I just couldn't do it. And that bothered me a lot.
"Then I saw a street performer who displayed a special memory trick. He wrote on a blackboard a string of numbers spoken
at random by some passers-by. Then, without looking at the blackboard, he was able to recite the numbers perfectly.
"Well, I bought from that street performer a little ten-page booklet on memory skills. And it told about the trick of
using images to remember numbers. Based on that idea, I began to work out my own particular approach to memorization.
"One day, a friend who knew about my memory skills left on my desk a page showing the value of pi worked out to many
decimal places. He said 'Why don't you memorize the value of pi ?'. Even before that I'd managed to get as far as 40 or 50
decimal places. Then, seeing this page, I decided to go ahead and memorize the value of that eternal number pi up to
one thousand places. But it wasn't easy - in fact, it took me three years. To get to 40,000 decimal places it took me
about ten years.
"It's part of my life and I've really just started. I feel that human abilities really have no limits. It's often said
that we use just about five percent of our brain cells, so I think we have much greater potential - and I want to pursue
that potential. So I want to go on with the challenge of memorizing pi, for just the same reason that people climb high
mountains. I think it's a wonderful thing to challenge the limits of what we can do.
"In fact, pi is said to be an irrational number, and its decimal places will never reach an end. But the more one memorizes
of it, the closer one comes to the real value of the circle - closer to perfection. So, even as I grow old, I'll always
face a new challenge; I feel, in some way, as if I'm seeking the ultimate truth. So I plan to go on memorizing more
and more, as long as my strenght holds out." |