In My Memory

Foreword　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

2018.1.18

Teruyuki NODA

Before starting this series (instead of the preface)

Last year I quietly reached Kiju (喜寿: the cerebration of a person's 77th birthday).

I think I have lived a long time. However, Kiju and Sanju (傘寿: the cerebration of a person's 80th birthday) are no longer so rare in the world today. The life expectancy of Japanese people is steadily increasing thanks to the reduction of stress caused by environmental changes, the development of medicine, and peace. That is why I do not feel that I live longer than old people.

Compared to Mozart and Schubert who died at that young age and did such a great job, modern longevity is not so meaningful. Especially when it comes to composition.

Moreover, it becomes even more meaningless if the brain itself is not truly long-lived.

With that kind of self- discipline in mind, fortunately the brain is still working normally, so I thought of recalling and recording the various memories that have been written in my memory until now.

  The human hippocampus seems to be responsible for human memory. It seems that when the hippocampus fills up, it will be gradually stored in another storage device, but I do not know where it is. It seems that the deeply stored memories are surprisingly healthy, and new memories are discarded as needed. It may have something to do with age. In any case, I do not recognize them scientifically correctly.

Now, this sentence, which I will start from now on, is not my autobiography. I follow the memory in chronological order according to one theme, but since I do not organize by chronological cuts, it seems that I will follow the era several times, and I also came up with each time. Maybe the story will have many branches because I am willing to break into the side streets. However, please be aware that the purpose of the main subject will always reach its origin without losing sight of it.

Any person living in any era must be surprised and deeply moved by the flow and changes of the times when they look back at the time when they walk. Recent studies have revealed that Japan's Jomon period is the oldest civilization in the world, which has continued for 18,000 years. During that time, the system that remained unchanged as a hunting race continued to be maintained. People of that era would have been impressed by the changes in their lives. However, how swift the change is in our era, compared to the era that followed that gradual change. Above all, the era I experienced was a era of another kind of change that was far beyond my imagination. It would be useful to remember and record these various events with a personal eye. Because I write when I think of it, I refuse that it is not a regular thing.