First, a huge THANKS to the creator/owner of this site, it's really a fantastic place for us Monkey fans to come to find out what's new and happening in the world of Monkey! Great job!!!
Next, I'd like to ask if there's anyone out there who can identify the Japanese characters that Monkey writes on Buddha's hand in episode one (when he reads it aloud he says "the great Sage, King Monkey, Equal of heaven was here"). I've tried jotting them down myself (thank goodness for the slow-motion on DVDs!) and then trying to find the characters online in Japanese dictionaries, but I just can't find them all... you might be wondering what I'm trying to do... Well, it's a bit silly, but I'm actually thinking about having it tattooed on my arm. Most people will assume it's a Zen saying or something, but me and my Monkey-fan friends will all know and it'll be sort of a private joke. :)
Anyway, hopefully someone out there can direct me to a webpage where the characters are laid out in a fashion that I can print them out to show to the tattoo artist.
Dude, think before you act.That "inside joke" will be on your arm for the rest of your life.I'm not against tats, or anything like that, but it's always a good idea to give your choice of design a lot of thought.
It's not like you can easily remove or alter it if you change your mind in a few years time.
Thanks for the concern, but rest assured I've spent quite a bit of time considering this idea and it's certainly not the first time I've been inked, so I realize how permanent it is.
I'm still looking for some help on those characters!!!
Unfortunately I can't help out with the full inscription but I could let you have the Chinese characters for "Great Sage Equal to Heaven" (pronounced Chi Tien Ta-Sheng) if that would be of any use. I obtained these four characters because (a) I really like this title and (b) I want to get them inscribed on a banner as Monkey does in the book "The Journey to the West". A tattoo also sounds good!
I don't know what the characters mean but I should be able to find out soon.
I found your message funny because as I was watching that episode the other day my husband walked into the room during that part and I said What a cool tattoo that would make! Us Monkey fans are all nuts.
If you are only interested in having the Monkey's name tatooed, then go for the first four characters - 斉天大聖(hope these turn out OK). the last four characters mean "arrived here and had a look around" (or something like that). So it was "Monkey woz ere".The reason why you can't find some characters (the first one and the last one) in your Japanese dictionary is probably because these are what we call old characters, which are no longer in use in Japan (don't know about China,though). The whole graffiti reads (with simplified characters - again, hope these turn out OK) 斉天大聖到此一遊
A friend of a friend has managed to translate the Monkey graffiti from the TV show for me! Hurrah! Turns out it is in Chinese, and literally translates to something like "great sage equal of heaven was here" and apparently the "King Monkey" bit is implied/understood.
Anyway, I did get it tattooed and it looks excellent. I am quite proud. Yes, as someone said earlier, us Monkey fans are all nuts!