Speak no, See no, Hear no …

Sydney March 2014 (2 images)

The three wise monkeys (Japanese: 三猿, san’en or sanzaru, or 三匹の猿, sanbiki no sari), sometimes called the three mystic apes, are a pictorial maxim. They embody the proverbial principle to “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”. There are various meanings ascribed to the monkeys and the proverb including associations with being of good mind, speech and action. The phrase is also used to refer to those who deal with impropriety by turning a blind eye.

The source that popularized this pictorial maxim is a 17th-century carving over a door of the Tōshō-gū shrine in Nikkō, Japan. The carvings at the Shrine were carved by Hidari Jingoro, and believed to have incorporated Confucius’ Code of Conduct, using the monkey as a way to depict man’s life cycle. There are a total of 8 panels, and the iconic three wise monkeys picture comes from panel 2. However, the philosophy probably originally came to Japan with a Tendai-Buddhist legend, from China in the 8th century (Nara Period). It has been suggested that the figures represent the three dogmas of the so-called middle school of the sect. …source: wikipedia.

The three monkeys are:

Iwazaru. He’s on the left and speaks no evil. However, he might use his hands to express himself though;

Mizaru. She’s in the middle with eyes closed so as to see no evil;

Kikazaru. He’s on the right and hears no evil. It helps to sometimes stand apart from the others to make that easier.

Those 3 monkeys above the doorway of the pub caught my eye. That building used to be a bank. Now there’s a twist.
Oh, and coincidentally there also happen to be three pedestrians standing across the road. Don’t you think it was very nice of them to pose for me? 🙂 As I’ve said before, I like to be prepared for that candid moment by always having my camera ready and I like to photograph people at intersections.

Over at the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge, this week’s topic is Twist, by which they want unexpected and surprising, something filthy rich with meaning. That’s a tough one. I don’t think I have anything like that so I’ll just go with this one. 😉

PS: This will be my only post this week. My next post will be next week.