The Three Monkeys of Gandhi

Among the few possessions found with Gandhi at his death was a small porcelain figurine. It showed three monkeys, each covering a different sense. Gandhi did not invent this image. It came from a 17th-century Japanese shrine carving, centuries before he was born. This article covers where the symbol began, and how it became linked to Gandhi’s own philosophy.

A Small Figurine, A Whole Philosophy

ModHist0106

1636

Carved At Nikko

Japan’s Toshogu shrine carves its famous three-monkey panel

1933

Gifted To Gandhi

Japanese monk Nichidatsu Fujii gives him the figurine

1948

Among His Last Possessions

Found among Gandhi’s few belongings at the time of his death

TODAY

On Display

Kept at Sabarmati Ashram, alongside his glasses and sandals

The borrowing: A 17th-century Japanese carving became, three centuries later, a personal symbol for an Indian independence leader.

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Timeline

• In 1636, Japan’s Toshogu shrine at Nikko carved its famous panel of three monkeys, part of a set of eight monkey carvings on a stable wall.
• In 1933, the Japanese monk Nichidatsu Fujii met Gandhi at his ashram in Wardha. Fujii, founder of the Nipponzan-Myohoji Buddhist order, gave him a small porcelain figurine of the three monkeys.
• By 1948, the figurine was among the few personal belongings found with Gandhi at the time of his death.
• Today, it is kept at Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat, alongside his glasses and sandals.

The Symbol and Its Names Need to Know

• The three monkeys are named Mizaru (see no evil), Kikazaru (hear no evil), and Iwazaru (speak no evil).
• Each monkey covers one sense: Mizaru covers his eyes, Kikazaru his ears, and Iwazaru his mouth.
• The names come from a Japanese pun. The suffix “-zaru” both negates a verb and echoes “saru,” the Japanese word for monkey.
• Gandhi treated the figurine as a personal symbol of his own philosophy of ahimsa, or non-violence. The figure itself, though, was a much older Japanese image, not one he created.

How Gandhi Read the Symbol Good to Know

• Gandhi read the monkeys as practical moral advice. Closing off the senses to harmful input, he argued, helps prevent corrupting thoughts and actions in the first place.
• The symbol connects to self-restraint and self-discipline, values central to Gandhi’s idea of satyagraha.
• Nichidatsu Fujii’s own order later built Peace Pagodas across India, including the one at Rajgir in Bihar.
• Gandhi wove this one small symbol into a far larger moral philosophy, built on truth and non-violence. Read more in ModHist0019 — Gandhi’s Philosophy: From Hind Swaraj to Champaran.

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. The three monkeys associated with Gandhi are named Mizaru, Kikazaru, and Iwazaru. What does Iwazaru represent?

See no evil

Hear no evil

Speak no evil

Do no evil

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Cultural Borrowing and Deeper Origins Great to Know

• The Nikko carving’s original meaning was narrower than Gandhi’s own reading. It was mainly advice about raising a child well, not a general adult ethic. Some scholars trace the covering-senses idea further back. It may echo Buddhist teachings that reached Japan from China around the 8th century, themselves possibly rooted in older ideas from India.
• Gandhi adopting a Japanese folk image, rather than an Indian one, for his personal symbol shows how freely his moral philosophy borrowed across cultures. He judged ideas on their content, not their origin.
• A small, humble object outlasting grander monuments as a symbol says something about how legacies actually form. People remember a gesture or object more easily than an abstract principle.
• The wordplay behind “Mizaru, Kikazaru, Iwazaru” shows the phrase began as language play in Japan, not as a moral teaching. Its ethical meaning was added afterward, as the image spread.
• Gandhi often took an existing word or image and filled it with new meaning of his own. He did this again with Sarvodaya, a word he coined for universal welfare. Read more in ModHist0266 — Sarvodaya: Gandhi’s Word for Universal Welfare.