The second time I visited Yushima Tenjin's Ume Festival, just as I was about to leave, I saw a huge crowd gathered around...something.
It turned out to be a saru mawashi (monkey show). The last time I saw one was also at a Tenjin Shrine, in Kameido.
As excited I get to see the monkey, I have reservations about the existence of saru mawashi. It doesn't feel good to see a monkey tied up and made to perform, with the monkey's supposed stupidity serving as a schtick for the whole show. I worry: are they being treated right?
My favorite moments were the monkey simply being a monkey: bored out of his mind and picking dirt out of his fingernails.
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