ニホンザル
The Japanese kanji 猿 is pronounced as Sino-Japanese "en" &lt; "yuan" or native "saru" "monkey", especially the indigenous "Japanese macaque, "Macaca fuscata"". In Japanese Shinto tradition, the monkey deity Sarutahiko was a divine messenger. Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney contrasts how, "in earlier periods the dominant meaning of the monkey was that of mediator between deities and humans. Later in history, its meaning as a scapegoat became increasingly dominant."