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In the last episode of Azumanga Daioh, Yomi relates `3661` with `samurai`
word. ![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/psgAM.png)

I know is a mnemonic technique to remember things, so things should be
something like:

[code]

    3 ~> sa ~> san
    6 ~> mu ~> ??? (maybe shape of hiragana? む )
    6 ~> ra ~> ...roku??
    1 ~> i  ~> ichi
    
[/code]

But I couldn't guess at all why relates 6 with both `mu` and `ra`. Any idea?


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question
culture japanese-language terminology azumanga-daioh
Why does Yomi relate 3661 with "Samurai"?


Six can be written as 六「む (mu), むう, ろく (roku)」 and 陸「おか, りく (riku)」.

So he could have mistaken "roku" or "riku" for "ra".


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Japanese speakers may remember numbers by taking the prominent syllable from
how they read numbers (語呂合わせ goroawase). There are more than one way on how to
count: one that descended from Old Japanese (大和言葉 Yamato kotoba) and one
borrowed from Chinese (漢語 kango). In the order of Yamato / Kango:

  1. ひとつ hitotsu / いち ichi
  2. ふたつ futatsu / に ni
  3. みっつ mittsu / さん san
  4. よっつ yottsu / し shi
  5. いつつ itsutsu / ご go
  6. むっつ muttsu / ろく roku
  7. ななつ nanatsu / しち shichi
  8. やっつ yattsu / はち hachi
  9. ここのつ kokonotsu / きゅう kyū or く ku
  10. とお tō / じゅう jyū

and so forth. Therefore, a syllable that corresponds to 3 can be either み mi,
さ sa, or ざ za (the last being the voiced variation of sa).

For 3661,

  * 3 = sa from san
  * 6 = mu from muttsu
  * 1 = i from ichi

The second 6 requires explanation. Notice that in the list above, "ra" does
not appear. In fact, most of the syllables do not have a direct corresponding
number, given that there are 48 basic syllables (plus 25 voiced variants and
21 digraphs). To force any given syllable into a number, people use various
techniques.

  * Use English. つ tsu = 2, せ se = 7, え e = 8
  * Use modern Chinese. す su = 4 (written sì in pinyin but sounds like su), り ri = liù = 6
  * Swap vowels. This is what happened to the second 6 in 3661. Of all the syllables in the ra-line (ra, ri, ru, re, ro), only re (0 from rei) and ro (6 from roku) are defined. The Chinese technique also suggests 6 for ri. Therefore, 6 may be extended to ra and ru also. (The same thing happens in the ko/go-line where 5 fills in for ka/ga and ke/ge; and in the ma-line where 6 fills in for me and mo.)

An example of this extended list can be found at
<http://www2u.biglobe.ne.jp/~b-jack/kouza/s-3.html>

With these techniques in play, people might remember the first 30 digits of pi
as follows:

[code]

    San ishi ikoku ni mukau. Sango yaku naku, 
    3 . 1 4  15 9  2  6 5    3  5  8 9  7 9
    Obstetrician goes to a foreign country. No misfortune after birth,
    
    sanpu miyashiro ni. Mushi sanzan yami ni naku.
    3  6  3 8 4  6  2   6 4   3  3   8 3  2  7 9
    the new mother heads to a shrine. Insects chirp in the darkness severely.
    
[/code]


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The interpretation for the second 6 is probably a special case. The only
reasoning that makes sense to me is:

  * ら is the 6th note in the [Fixed Do](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solf%C3%A8ge#Fixed_do_solf.C3.A8ge) key notation (C, D, E, F, G, A, B / Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti).

In hiragana, ら, also resembles the "5" or "6" number.

Please note that since it's a play on words, there're [many
ways](http://seoi.net/goro/data_2_6.shtml) to make the [numbers
work](http://seoi.net/goro/data_1_6.shtml), just like trying to get certain
words to fit in an acronym. E.g. C.I.A can mean "Central Intelligence Agency"
or "Chinese Igloo Appraisers".

There is really no right or wrong way to do 語呂合わせ【ごろあわせ】 (basically a pun/play
on words) with numbers.

Typically when doing word play with numbers 0-9, the [following
combinations](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%AA%9E%E5%91%82%E5%90%88%E3%82%8F%E3%81%9B#.E6.95.B0.E5.AD.97.E3.81.AE.E6.9A.97.E8.A8.98)
are used:

  * 1: ichi, i, hitotsu, hito 
  * 2: ni, futatsu, futa, fu, tsu ("two"), ji (kan'on reading) 
  * 3: san, sa, mittsu, mitsu, mi
  * 4: yon, yo, yottsu, shi, fo ("four"), ho 
  * 5: go, ko, i, itsutsu, itsu 
  * 6: roku, ro, muttsu, mutsu, mu 
  * 7: shichi, nanatsu, nana, na 
  * 8: hachi, ha, paa, yattsu, yatsu, ya, yaa 
  * 9: kyuu, kyu, ku, kokonotsu, kokono, ko
  * 0: rei, re, zero, nai, wa (based on shape of the kana, わ), ru (circle, also shape), oo (based on resemblance to the letter "O")


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