saru 猿

monkey / Affe

The most famous representation of monkeys, the “Three Wise Monkeys”, can be found in the Tôshô-gû shrine in Nikkô. The native species of monkey, the Japan makak (nihon-zaru), with a red face and red hind cheeks, which today lives in zoos as well as in the wild, has always been familiar to the locals and therefore plays an important role in numerous folk tales as well as in religious beliefs (as messengers of the gods). In some shrines – e.g. in the Sannô-Hie-jinja in Tôkyô – the monkeys are also depicted in the clothing of Shintô priests.