Ep. 017: The Monk and the Monkey King

One of the most popular stories in East Asia

An Old Guy Learns Something New

One day, at the age of around 42, and considering myself pretty well-educated, I was in a department store in Tokyo when I saw four small figures (which were in fact pencil sharpeners). One was a monkey with a band around his head; another was a man with the head of a pig; a third was a kind of scary-looking guy with long hair; and the last was a saintly Buddhist monk.

I had no idea who or what they were, and passed on.

It was weeks later that I learned that these were the four main characters from one of East Asia's most popular stories--known even in England and Australia, where an originally-Japanese show broadcast from 1978 to 1980 had been translated into English by the BBC, a production known simply as Monkey or, after its theme song, Monkey Magic.

Known in English as Journey to the West, the original novel's Chinese title was Xi You Ji; it was known in Japan by the Japanese pronunciation of the same three characters, Saiyuki. Thereafter, in keeping with the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, I was to see signs of these four characters everywhere.