人面獣心

じんめん じゅうしん
jinmen juushin

Let's pose a picture challenge for those of you reading at home. Before you scroll down to read the definition below, take a good long look at today's kanji: 人面獣心. Now try to guess which one of these pictures best suits today's yoji:


Your options are Beast, from the TV series Beauty and the Beast, Adolf Hitler, and the best non-erotic centaur I could find on Google images. I'm sure it's someone's avatar or something.

If you picked Adolf Hitler, you are correct! While Beast is a man with an animal exterior, and the centaur is a hodge-podge of animal, man, and otaku fantasy, Adolf Hitler is the best accompaniment for these kanji: the surface is that of a human being, but the heart is that of a beast.

Definition:
人の顔をしていながら心は獣同然であること。人情のない無慈悲な者のこと。
Translation:
1. A beast in human form
2. One who is mercilessly cruel
3. Inhumanly evil.

This is used to describe people who are capable of inhuman acts, so as you can imagine, it gets applied to shocking crimes that make headline news, and to the particularly nasty despots and dictators of history. If you'd like to see a particularly interesting mixture of results and Japanese perspectives, try doing a google search for 人面獣心 and 南京事件 (The Rape of Nanking).

I do have to admit though, that I got excited about this yoji because of the idea of it in its literal form. As I'm a bit prone to geeking out over magic and myth and demons and such myself, I like the idea of a beast that takes human form, like a werewolf but backwards. A wereman, I guess. But one animal that I would never immediately associate with 人面獣心 is the otter.

*Random Trivia Warning*

In Ishikawa-ken however, there are old, old stories about the 川獺 (かわうそ；kawauso: otter), who was often blamed when local fishermen had a bad run. It was thought though, that in order to get the fish and to perpetrate other shenanigans on the townsfolk as well, the otter would take on the guise of a small child or an old man, donning clothes and speaking in a human-like voice. It never managed to speak any intelligible Japanese words, but it got close, responding to questions of 「誰だ」 with 「オラヤ」 which might mean something in otter speak...

Forgive the digression, but I got this cool new book about Japanese ghosts and stuff. Will post more on it later in the week.

Check the sentence below for yoji usage!

例文：小さい子8人を殺した親父は最初に人面獣心の犯人に見えたけど、結局あの殺された8人は現実に子供じゃなくて、魚を奪おうとしている川獺8匹だった。
That old man who killed those 8 little kids seemed like an inhuman criminal at first, but in the end, it turned out that those 8 "kids" were just otters, trying to steal the fish!

表現 Break: 渡る世間に鬼はない

わたる　せけん　に　おに　は　ない
wataru seken ni oni wa nai

Today, a Japanese expression that would have Thomas Hobbes rolling in his grave. Whereas he assumed that life in the state of nature would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" due to the fundamental selfishness and evil of individual human beings, the Japanese came up with a more positive outlook.

Definition:
世間には鬼のように冷たい人ばかりでなく、心が温かくて親切な人もいること.
Translations:
Literal - There are no demons in this world
1. Not everyone is bad at heart.
2. People are basically good natured.
3. There is kindness to be found everywhere.

Of course, not all Japanese people think this way, as might be evidenced by the popular "ime-ji" of foreign countries as places of extreme danger. In fact, there is a long running Japanese TV drama that named itself after an alternate version of this phrase: 渡る世間には鬼ばかり.

And in case you ever get into a conversation about it, let's arm you with one of this phrase's opposites as well:

寺の隣にも鬼が住む
てらのとなりにもおにがすむ
tera no tonari ni mo oni ga sumu

Demons can live anywhere, even next to the temple.

Important note:
Don't be surprised if Japanese people are MORE familiar with the revised version that came from the drama... 渡る世間に鬼はない is an old expression, and young folks today are less inclined to assume the best of people.

Let's have some fun with today's example conversation、and revisit some old examples to see some alternate (better) uses.

例文：　
A-san: あの人が喋ると、ただ美辞麗句を並べているように聞こえない？なんか、きれいな言葉ばかりで、あまり意味がないよね。
When that guy talks, doesn't it seem like he's just blowing smoke in our faces? He says a lot of pretty things, but there's never any substance.
B-san:　そうよね。口がうまい、あいつ。彼は海千山千の代表じゃない？ああいうタイプには用心するけどね。
Yeah, right? Quite the bullshitter, that SOB. He's the epitome of a sly, old fox. If I were you, I'd be extra-cautious.
C-san:　でも、渡る世間には鬼はないから、もしかして彼の言っているのは純粋なのか？
But, there's good in everybody, you know? What if he's sincere in what he's saying?
D-san:　だが、衣ばかりで和尚はできぬ。それに、寺の隣にも鬼が住む。和尚の格好をつけている鬼でいる可能性もある。
Yeah, well wearing a robe doesn't make him a priest. And on top of that, demons lurk everywhere, even next to temples. What if he's a devil in priest's clothing?
Clay-san:　つまり「鬼と和尚は 表裏一体」とよく言われることだ。
After all, they say "Devils and priest are two sides of the same coin..."
Clay-sanの元彼女：　何それ！勝手に自分のことわざ作らないでよ！
What are you talking about? Stop making up your own expressions!