The Styrous® Viewfinder: Turkish Delights 04: Chinese carving ~ Three wise monkeys

September 22, 2024

Turkish Delights 04: Chinese carving ~ Three wise monkeys

photos by Styrous®

In the early sixties I was on one of my "junking" forays along Turk Street (link below) and came across a 10 pound, 16" tall, two-sided statue with detailed carvings that consist of various wild jungle animals, birds and hidden between them are the three "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil" monkeys. I fell in love with it at first sight; it would be my second Asian art purchase, more on that later.

Originally from China in the 8th century, the depiction of three monkeys is actually a play on words. In Japanese, the proverb is mizaru, kikazaru, iwazaru (見ざる, 聞かざる, 言わざる) or “see not, hear not, speak not”. Zaru can also be a modified form of the word for monkey (saru, 猿), so people inserted monkeys into the depictions of the teachings. The monkeys are named according to the original proverb. Mizaru, covers his eyes, seeing no evil; Kikazaru, covers his ears, hearing no evil; and Iwazaru, covers his mouth, speaking no evil.

The price on it was ten dollars, not a lot even by living standards of the time, so, assuming it was plastic, I bought it anyway. There it has remained for decades in my collection as a nice plastic reproduction. Five or six years ago a friend informed me it may not be plastic after all; it may indeed, be ivory! Needless to say, I was stunned.

After I heard that I examined the sculpture closely; the middle figure at the bottom is different on both sides but the 'tusks', with the exception of the loped off top of one, are exactly the same; I don't think what would be true if it were carved by hand.

¿Pero, quién sabe?

There have been many art, music and science projects based on the Three Monkees, most of them named after Mizaru. Aaron Sherwood has an engrossing series of performances (link below). Although the concept is interesting, Florence Blanchard has a series of art works based on the three monkees, however, the images remind me more of the art work for the album cover of the Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark album, Dazzle Ships (links below). Science is represented as well, the Mizaru Project deals with the acceptance of climate change (link below)