Ancient Asian wisdom is represented in the Olveston collection, writes Jenny Longstaff.
Amid the collectable clutter in the drawing room at Olveston Historic Home is a small set of three seated monkeys, carved in wood. They date from the late 19th or early 20th century and are Japanese, but the symbolic Three Wise Monkeys and the wisdom of the associated proverb are known throughout Asia and the Western world.
The Three Wise Monkeys, sometimes called the Three Mystic Apes, depict "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil", a philosophy which probably came to Japan via Tendai-Buddhism from China in the 8th century. There are also links to the Japanese folk religion called Koshin. A similar phrase exists in the Analects of Confucius, compiled from the 2nd to 4th century BC.
In Japan, the three monkeys’ names are Mizaru (covering his eyes), Kikazaru (covering his ears), and Iwazaru (covering his mouth). Why monkeys? The Japanese language uses the native macaque (snow monkey) in proverbs and idiomatic expressions; it also features in folklore, festivals, Shinto and Buddhist religion, and the art of Japan.
A 17th-century carving at the famous Tosho-gu Shrine in Nikko — showing the three monkeys — popularised the motto, which promotes healthy living through behaving well by not allowing evil to taint one’s life. (To illustrate its widespread impact, in modern times, one of Mahatma Gandhi’s few possessions was a small statue of the Three Wise Monkeys.)
The shrine of Tosho-gu is the final resting place of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616), a highly significant figure in Japanese history: founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate, a military dynasty that unified and governed Japan from 1603 to 1867. The Edo-based rule of the Tokugawa Shoguns was followed by the Meiji Restoration (which continued until 1912 and broadly corresponds to our own Victorian era), during which Japan moved from an isolated feudal society to its modern form, and wealthy Westerners such as the Theomins of Dunedin were able to travel there.
Nowadays, the lavishly decorated Nikko Tosho-gu Shrine complex is a Unesco World Heritage site, famous for the Three Wise Monkeys carving at the Sacred Stable, where a white imperial horse is kept (a gift from New Zealand).
Jenny Longstaff is a housekeeper and tour guide at Olveston Historic Home.
