Meet the Family Stone: Mi, Kika and Iwa.
The cute factor of this Japanese postcard is undeniable. Order, politeness and respect…all align with common behavior by the good people from this island nation. The positive “look, listen, talk” seems a modern twist on the time-tested “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.” Which got me wondering why monkeys always figured in this maxim.
All is not clear on this front. Wikipedia dug deep for me on this one. Turns out that during a Japanese folk religious observance (Kōshin) around the 1500s, monkeys graced stone pillars. Who knows why. What is known is that –zaru, an antiquated verb suffix to express negation, sounds the same as saru for “monkey.” The Japanese version — “Mizaru, kikazaru, iwazaru” or “don’t see, don’t hear, don’t speak” — has the added possibility of being the names of the threesome.
Another interpretation attributes the monkeys’ presence to their importance in the Shinto religion, which influenced the folk rite. As if monkeys weren’t enough, even worms squirm into the interpretation picture. And, rewinding way on back, a similar Chinese phrase, “Look not at what is contrary to propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety; speak not what is contrary to propriety; make no movement which is contrary to propriety.” just might be the original. Lucky for us, we can often count on the Japanese to minify and cutify things.
Devign 