The Japanese macaque (Japanese: 日本猿 Nihonzaru), characterized by brown-grey fur, a red face and buttocks, and a short tail, inhabits all of the islands in the Japanese archipelago except northernmost Hokkaido. Throughout most of Japanese history, monkeys were a familiar animal seen in fields and villages, but with habitat lost through urbanization of modern Japan, they are presently limited to mountainous regions. Monkeys are a historically prominent feature in the religion, folklore, and art of Japan, as well as in Japanese proverbs and idiomatic expressions.
The Japanese cultural meaning of the monkey has diachronically changed. Beginning with 8th-century historical records, monkeys were sacred mediators between gods and humans; around the 13th century, monkeys also became a "scapegoat" metaphor for tricksters and dislikable people. These roles gradually shifted until the 17th century, when the monkey usually represented the negative side of human nature, particularly people who foolishly imitate others. Japanese anthropologist Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney explains the idiom saru wa ke ga sanbon tarinai (猿は毛が三本足りない, "a monkey is [a human] minus three pieces of hair"): "The literal meaning of this saying is that the monkey is a lowly animal trying to be a human and therefore is to be laughed at. However, the saying is understood by the Japanese to portray the monkey as representing undesirable humans that are to be ridiculed."
Language Saru (猿) is the most common "monkey" word in the Japanese language. This Japanese kanji 猿 has on'yomi "Chinese readings" of en or on (from Chinese yuán), and kun'yomi "Japanese readings" of saru or Old Japanese mashi or mashira in classical Japanese literature. The archaic literary ete reading in etekō (猿公, "Mr. Monkey") is phonetically anomalous.
The etymologies of Japanese saru and mashira are uncertain. For saru (猿), Yamanaka notes Ainu saro "monkey", which Batchelor explains as, "from sara (a tail) and o (to bear), hence saro means 'having a tail'." Yamanaka suggests an etymology from Mongolian samji "monkey", transformed from sam > sanu > salu, with a possible ma- prefix evident in archaic Japanese masaru, mashira, and mashi pronunciations (of 猿). For mashira (猿), Yamanaka cites Turner that Indo-Aryan markáta "monkey" derives from Sanskrit markaṭa (मर्कट) "monkey" (cf. meerkat), with cognates including Pali makkaṭa, Oriya mākaṛa, and Gujarti mākṛũ.
Saru originally meant the "Japanese macaque" specifically, but was semantically extended to mean "simian", "monkey", "ape". The en or on Sino-Japanese reading is seen in words such as: shin'en (心猿, lit. "heart-/mind-monkey") (Buddhist) "unsettled; restless; indecisive" enjin (猿人 "monkey human") "ape-man" shinenrui (真猿類 "true monkey category") "simian" ruijinen (類人猿 "category human monkey") "anthropoid; troglodyte" oen (御猿, "great monkey") "menstruation", in comparison to a monkey's red buttocks The native saru reading is used in many words, including some proper names: sarumawashi (猿回し, lit. "monkey revolving") "monkey trainer; monkey show" sarumane (猿真似, "monkey imitation") "superficial imitation; monkey see, monkey do" sarujie (猿知恵, "monkey wisdom") "shortsighted cleverness" Sarugaku (猿楽, "monkey music") "a traditional form of comic theater, popular in Japan during the 11th to 14th centuries" Sarushima (猿島, "monkey island") "a small island in Tokyo Bay" Sarumino (猿蓑 "monkey straw-raincoat"), "a 1691 anthology of haiku poetry"
Personal names with the word saru "monkey" reflect semantically positive meanings of the monkey. Japanese scholars consider Sarumaru Dayū (猿丸大夫) to be either "a legendary poet of the Genkei period (877–884)" or "a name given to a number of itinerant priest-poets who formed a group named Sarumaru". Sarumatsu (猿松) was the childhood nickname of the daimyō Uesugi Kenshin (1530–1578).
While most Japanese "monkey" words have positive denotations, there are a few pejorative exceptions. One is a native Japanese term: yamazaru (山猿, "mountain/wild monkey") "country bumpkin; hick; hillbilly". Two are Sino-Japanese loanwords for foreign monkeys: shōjō (猩々 "orangutan") "a mythical red-faced, red-haired god of wine, who was always drunk and dancing merrily" or "heavy drinker; drunk" and hihi (狒々 "baboon") "satyr; lecher; dirty old man". This Japanese Shōjō legend derives from Chinese traditions that the xingxing (猩猩 "orangutan") is fond of wine.
Monkeys are a common trope in Japanese idioms: ken'en no naka (犬猿の仲, lit. "dog and monkey relationship") "a bad relationship; like cats and dogs" saru no shiri warai (猿の尻笑い, "monkey laughing at someone's buttocks") "laughing at someone's weakness while disregarding one's own weakness; the pot calling the kettle black" saru mo ki kara ochiru (猿も木から落ちる, "even monkeys fall from trees") "anyone can make a mistake" The opaque idiom tōrō ga ono, enkō ga tsuki (蟷螂が斧猿猴が月, lit. "axes for a praying mantis, moon for a monkey") means, "A praying mantis trying to crush the wheel of a cart with its forelegs (the axes) is portrayed as being as ridiculous as a monkey mistaking the reflection of the moon in the water for the moon itself and trying to capture it".
Chinese monkey lore
When the Japanese adapted Chinese characters to write Japanese, such as using Chinese yuan 猿 "gibbon; monkey" for saru "macaque; monkey", they concurrently adopted many Chinese monkey customs and traditions. Some notable examples are: the Year of the Monkey in the Chinese zodiac; the belief that "stable monkeys" will protect the health and safety of horses (see below); the traditional Chinese symbolic contrast between the superior, supernatural gibbon and the inferior, foolish macaque; and mythological monkeys like the Kakuen "a legendary monkey-man that abducts and rapes human women" (< Chinese jueyuan 玃猿) and the Shōjō "a god of wine with a red face and long, red hair" (< Chinese xingxing 猩猩 "monkey; orangutan").
Religion
Monkey deities are common among Japanese religious beliefs, including Shinto, notably Sannō Shinto, Kōshin, and Japanese Buddhism.
In ancient Shinto tradition, Sarutahiko Ōkami (猿田彦大神, lit. "monkey-field prince great god") or Sarutahiko (also pronounced Sarudahiko, Sarutabiko, or Sarudabiko) is a monkey-like God of Crossroads between heaven and earth. Sarutahiko Okami is worshipped at Tsubaki Grand Shrine in Mie and Ōasahiko Shrine in Tokushima.
The two earliest Japanese mytho-histories, the (712) Kojiki ("Record of Ancient Matters") and the (720) Nihongi ("Chronicles of Japan"), both record Sarutahiko. One Kojiki chapter mentions him, "Now when this Deity Prince of Saruta dwelt at Azaka, he went out fishing, and had his hand caught by a hirabu shell-fish, and was drowned in the brine of the sea." The Nihongi has a more detailed myth about the Crossroad God Sarutahiko no Okami. When the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, said to be the ancestress of the Imperial House of Japan, decided to send her grandson Ninigi and other deities down to earth to govern, she first sent a scout to clear the way, who returned and reported encountering the fearsome Sarutahiko. There is one God who dwells at the eight-cross-roads of Heaven, the length of whose nose is seven hands, the length of whose back is more than seven fathoms. Moreover, a light shines from his mouth and from his posteriors. His eye-balls are like an eight-hand mirror and have a ruddy glow like the Aka-kagachi.Tr. . Amaterasu chose Ame-no-Uzume as the only god or goddess who could confront Sarutahiko and ask why he was blocking the crossroads between heaven and earth, and said: "Thou art superior to others in the power of thy looks. Thou hadst better go and question him." So Ame no Uzume forthwith bared her breasts and, pushing down the band of her garment below her navel, confronted him with a mocking laugh. [Sarutahiko is shocked and explains that he is waiting to serve as guide for Ninigi] "I have heard that the child of Ama-terasu no Oho-kami is now about to descend, and therefore I have come respectfully to meet and attend upon him. My name is Saruta-hiko no Oho-kami".Tr. . Sarutahito later marries Ame-no-Uzume. Ohnuki-Tierney lists three factors that identify Sarutahiko as a Monkey Deity: saru means "monkey", his features "include red buttocks, which are a prominent characteristic of Japanese macaques", and as macaques gather shellfish at low tide, the Kojiki says his hand got caught in a shell while fishing and "a monkey with one hand caught in a shell is a frequent theme of Japanese folktales".
Another Shinto monkey myth concerns the God of Lightning Raijin who is accompanied by shape-shifting raijū (雷獣,"thunder beast") ball lightning that sometimes appeared as a monkey.
Sarugami (猿神, lit. "monkey god") was part of the Sannō Shintō sect, which was based upon the cult of the Mountain God Sannō (山王, "mountain king") and Tendai Buddhism. Sarugami was Sannō's messenger, and served as an intermediary between deities and humans. Sannō and Sarugami are worshipped at Hiyoshi Taisha Shrine in Ōtsu, Shiga.
The Mountain and Monkey Gods Sannō and Sarugami became popular during the early Tokugawa or Edo period. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who unified Japan in 1590 and ended the Sengoku period, was nicknamed Kosaru ("small monkey") or Saru ("monkey"), "not only because his face looked like a monkey's, but also because he eagerly sought identification with the monkey". Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was the first shōgun (1603–1605) of the Tokugawa shogunate, "officially designated the Monkey Deity as the guardian of peace in the nation, and a festival for the deity was elaborately carried out in Edo" during his reign. During this period, a genre of paintings illustrated the Monkey God as a messenger from the Mountain God, depicting him dancing during rice harvesting, or holding a gohei "a ritual wand with pendant paper streamers" ritualistically used by Shinto priests to summon the spirit of a deity. Thus, Ohnuki-Tierney says, "the monkey in these paintings is assigned the role of mediating between deities and humans, just as shamans and priests do".
The role of monkeys as mediators is evident within the Japanese Kōshin folk religion. This eclectic belief system incorporates Daoist beliefs about the sanshi (三尸, "Three Corpses") "evil spirits that live in the human body and hasten death", Shinto Sarugami mythology (above), and Buddhist beliefs about simian gods such as the Vānara "a monkey-like humanoid" in the Ramayana. Shōmen-Kongō (青面金剛, "Blue-face Vajra" "a fearsome, many-armed, Kōshin guardian deity", who was supposedly able to make the Three Corpses sick and thus prevent them from reporting to Heaven, was commonly depicted with two or three monkey attendants.
In Daoist-Kōshin beliefs, the bodily Three Corpses keep records of their host's misdeeds, which they report to Heaven bimonthly on the night gengshen (Japanese kōshin) 庚申 "57th of the 60 (in the Chinese Sexagenary cycle)" while their human host is dreaming. But in a type of karmic loophole, someone who stays awake throughout that day and night can avoid receiving a shorter lifespan for their transgressions. The Japanese version of this custom, Kōshin-Machi (庚申待, "Kōshin Waiting"), became an all-night party among friends.