The three wise monkeys are a Japanese pictorial maxim, embodying the proverbial principle "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil". The three monkeys are Mizaru, who sees no evil, covering his eyes Kikazaru, who hears no evil, covering his ears, and Iwazaru, who speaks no evil, covering his mouth. Lafcadio Hearn refers to them as the three mystic apes. There are various meanings ascribed to the monkeys and the proverb including associations with being of good mind, speech and action. The phrase is often used to refer to those who deal with impropriety by turning a blind eye. Outside Japan the monkeys' names are sometimes given as Mizaru, Mikazaru and Mazaru, as the last two names were corrupted from the Japanese originals. The monkeys are Japanese macaques, a common species in Japan. Origin 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 Tōshō-gū Shrine were carved by Hidari Jingoro, and believed to have incorporated Confucius’s Code of Conduct, using the monkey as a way to depict man’s life cycle. There are a total of eight panels, and the iconic three wise monkeys picture comes from panel 2. The philosophy, however, 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. In Chinese, two similar phrases exist: one is in the late Analects of Confucius (from 4th to 2nd century BCE), that reads: "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" (); the other is in the book Xunzi (from the 3rd century BCE), which reads: "[The gentleman] makes his eyes not want to see what is not right, makes his ears not want to hear what is not right, makes his mouth not want to speak what is not right, and makes his heart not want to deliberate over what is not right" (). Those may be the inspiration for the pictorial maxim after Chinese works were brought into Japan. It is through the Kōshin rite of folk religion that the most significant examples are presented. The Kōshin belief or practice is a Japanese