360-DEGREE LIVES: Showman sleeps with monkeys to gain their trust at Nikko park

Editor’s note: This is part of a series of videos offering an up-close perspective on the animal kingdom. A special 360-degree video camera system was set up in zoos and other facilities to show how the animals view their world as they interact.

Also visit our special 360-DEGREE LIVES page (http://t.asahi.com/360lives), where you can watch all the previous videos.

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Monkey showman Tsuyoshi Oikawa says, “Each and every one of them has a different face and personality.”

The 40-year-old should know. He knows his orphan monkeys very well. He even beds down with them.

Oikawa says that it requires a certain determination to take care of the monkeys for the rest of their lives and train them for shows.

The familiarity, it is believed, enables the animals to let down their guard against humans to build trust.

Then, what is the most difficult task of a monkey showman?

“To make them understand they are complimented for their performance,” Oikawa said, who has 20 years experience training them.

Inside the Nikko Saru Gundan theme park in Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, is a little house where visitors can meet with the baby monkeys.

One day last December, five Japanese macaques aged between 1 to 3 were seen playing around in the lodge-style hut.

The little monkeys had been taken into protective custody after they lost or were separated from their parents.

One was scurrying and jumping about, while another sat still, as if in deep contemplation.

The monkeys reach puberty when they are about 5. They also go through a rebellious phase that many parents who have dealt with children in their teens will be well aware of. Oikawa says that when some of the little ‘uns turn 7 or 8, they start picking fights with handlers.

The theme park is rising in status again. The human/monkey comedy troupe Nikko Saru Gundan (monkey army), which had its theme park, had once been a massive hit here. But the park was closed in late 2013 due to the Great East Japan Earthquake and the aging of the apes. Then famous monkey handler Taro Murasaki took over the operation and opened this new park in 2015.

Admission is 2,000 yen ($18.60) for junior high school students or older and 1,000 yen for children aged 4 plus.