page_title: Monkeys in Japanese culture
section_title: Folklore
hierarchical_section_title: Monkeys in Japanese culture / Folklore
caption_attribution_description: English: Sarukanigassen (The Crab and the Monkey) Emaki 日本語: 猿蟹合戦絵巻
context_page_description: The Japanese macaque, characterized by brown-grey fur, red face, red buttocks, and 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.
context_section_description: Monkeys are a common theme in Japanese folktales and fairy tales.
  The monkey is a malicious trickster in Saru Kani Gassen ("Battle of the Crab and the Monkey") over a rice-ball and a persimmon seed (Ozaki 1903:205–215).
  In one widespread version, the monkey takes a rice ball from a crab in exchange for a persimmon seed, explaining to the crab that there is nothing left of a rice ball after its consumption, whereas a persimmon seed will grow and bear fruit. When the crab manages to grow the tree, which bears much fruit, the crab asks the monkey to fetch a persimmon. The monkey climbs up the tree and throws a persimmon at the crab, injuring or killing her, depending on the version. Eventually, the crab (or her children, in the version in which she is killed) and her sympathizers (a chestnut, a needle, a wasp, a mortar, dung, and so forth, depending upon the region) take revenge on the monkey. (Ohnuki-Tierney 1987:54) 
  In Momotarō ("Peach Boy") (Ozaki 1903:244–261), the hero is befriended by three talking animals, a monkey, a dog, and a pheasant. 
  The monkey serves as a mediator in several folktales. The (13th century) Zatsudanshū has a story about a diligent man and a lazy man who once lived at the foot of a mountain.
  The hard-working man worked in the field from early morning till evening to grow soybeans and red beans. One day he became tired and fell asleep, whereupon monkeys came and thought he was a Buddha. They gave him yams and other offerings and went back to the mountain. The man took the offerings home. Upon hearing this story, the wife of the lazy man urged her husband to do the same. The monkeys carried him across the river to ensconce him there. While they were carrying him on their arms, the monkeys said, "We should raise our hakama [a skirt-like garment for men]", and they stroked their fur to imitate the gesture of raising the hakama. Upon seeing this, the man laughed. The monkeys said that he was a man, instead of a Buddha, and threw him into the river. He was drenched, swallowed a great deal of water, and narrowly escaped his death. Upon hearing of the incident, his wife became enraged. "One should never engage in superficial imitation of others." (tr. Ohnuki-Tierney 1987:51)
  These monkeys act as "sacred mediators who on behalf of the Mountain Deity punish a lazy man and his wife for engaging in superficial imitation of their neighbors, while they themselves are imitating humans". Saru Jizō (猿地蔵, "Monkey Jizo") was a later version of this tale in which the monkeys mistake both men for a Jizō Buddha rather than simply a Buddha (Ohnuki-Tierney 1987:52).
  Some folktales portray the monkey as a trickster who tries to outsmart others. Take for instance, Kurage honenashi (水母骨なし) "Boneless Jellyfish" (Chamberlain 1887). When the Dragon King hears that eating a live monkey's liver is the only medicine that will save his queen from dying, he sends his trusted servant fish to cross the ocean, go to the monkey-land, and convince a live monkey to return to the dragon-land. While they are traveling across the ocean, the monkey learns that the king will cut out his liver, and tells the fish that he left his liver hanging on a tree in monkey-land, where they return to find the tree empty. When the fish swims back to dragon-land and reports what happened, the king realizes the monkey's deception, and orders his officers to break every bone in the fish's body and beat him to a jelly, which is why jellyfish do not have bones.
caption: Edo-period Saru Kani Gassen Emaki, emakimono showing the crab and the monkey.
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