Iwatayama Monkey Park
Iwatayama Monkey Park is a commercial park located in Arashiyama in Kyoto, Japan. The park is located atop Mount Arashiyama, on the opposite side of the Ōi River of the train station. It is inhabited by a troop of over 120 Japanese macaque monkeys. The animals are wild but can be fed by the staff and visitors with food exclusively purchased at the site. The main reason why these wild macaques choose to stay in the park is so that they can feed on the food given by the staff. The feeding system includes corn and wheat handed out every two hours from 9:30 to 5:30.
To visit this park, visitors have to go up a somewhat steep mountain. The climb is about 1.45 kilometers with an altitude gain of 160 meters. The park closes at 5pm and all guests must pay a small fee to enter the park.
Macaque naming
The macaques at Iwatayama Monkey Park roam freely, but they are well-known to the park staff. Many can be recognized just by sight. According to Nobuo Asaba, one of the park’s concessionaires, “If you really care, you have to memorize everyone’s name.” Some of the macaques have even earned nicknames, like Cooper. Typically, each macaque is given a formal name based on its matriline, with the family name followed by numbers indicating the birth year of the direct female descendant.The monkey naming system was pioneered by student researcher Naonosuke Hazama. In partnership with local business leaders, Hazama developed a plan in 1954 to study and acclimate the monkeys for both tourism and scientific exploration. It was during this time that Hazama and his team began assigning names to individual monkeys, establishing a naming tradition that extended to their offspring. This system became the cornerstone for some of the earliest and most in-depth research on primate social structures and kinship-based networks.