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The Japanese macaque (Japanese ''Nihonzaru'' 日本猿), 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. Japanese anthropologist Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney (1987:59–60) explains the idiom ''saru wa ke ga sanbon tarinai'' (猿わ毛が三本足りない, "a monkey is (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 (1976:253) notes Ainu ''saro'' "monkey", which Batchelor (1905:22) 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 (1985:410) cites Turner (1962:568) 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 (Ohnuki-Tierney 1987:52). 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 daimyo Uesugi Kenshin (1530-1578). While most Japanese "monkey" words have positive denotations, there are a few pejorative exceptions (Carr 1993:167). 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 (Ohnuki-Tierney 1987:64), "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". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Monkeys in Japanese culture」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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