ABSTRACT
Any number of questions arise from the Japanese preoccupation with numbers. Intuitively numbers seem so much a part of all human experience, that it is difficult to see precisely what scope there is for understanding, or using them, in some special way.1 True, certain specialised numerical institutions, such as certain games, may be found to exist only in one particular region-which for this book will be Japan-but even then the actual numerical base can always be expressed in a form which is quite general and not tied to any particular culture.2 The symbols used tend to be completely arbitrary, whether they take the form of spoken words or written signs, which need not necessarily correspond to one particular word. Viewed objectively, this is true of the numerical symbols used by the Japanese, although this is not how the Japanese themselves would see things. It is not so much that certain symbols, such as the Chinese character, or kanji,3 for the number 3, , indicate their meaning by being a member of the class defined by this number, in the present case by being comprised of three horizontal strokes, but that many other kanji numerals, without this property, still have connotations which range far beyond the numbers they represent. Instances will constantly occur throughout this book.
