I was just reading a very interesting short ebook on memory techniques and while the systems presented in the book are rather fantastic, they're not exactly suited to learning Kanji but something which was worth a mention that came up was something called a "memory loop".

The example given was when memorizing a shopping list, linking each item to the next via a funny story so it becomes very easy to remember the next item in the sequence. At the end tacked on was mentioned that one should then link the last item back to the first to create a "memory loop" enabling you to start at any point in the list and still ensuring all of it can be recalled without fail.

Now I REALLY wish I had done had memory looped all of my heisig stories somehow because it sucks when you can remember certain things about your mnemonic but something is missing! So I posted this on the off chance it may help future RTKers.

Google "kanji chains". It has its limitations.

Strikes me as a bad idea for three reasons:

1) Kanji stories are not complex. The worst (in terms of number of elements) are disconnect (five: top-hat, villain, belt, elbow, old-bird) and the left half of dissolve (also used in isolate: one, mouth, belt, human-legs, spike). Making a chain/loop is probably overkill. No mnemonic technique will stop forgetting; at best, they only decrease the review load.

2) If you don't take steps to memorize the mnemonic it will naturally fade and be replaced by what you were trying to memorize in the first place. Maintaining the ability to tell all your kanji stories word-for-word, while impressive, will take many times more review than writing the kanji themselves!

3) In cases where memorizing lists may help learning Japanese, such as 音-groups, it's better to keep the list open for expansion. For example, I only know two アク characters: 悪 and 握, but kanjidic gives 12 in that group. Later, I may want to pick up from 握手 and continue the chain.