Japanese cultural elements in Hayao Miyazaki’s anime

Japanese cultural elements in Hayao Miyazaki’s anime

Background information on Japanese cultural heritage

Japan is considered to have a rich and unique cultural heritage. Nations around the globe are being highly influenced and buying into Japanese pop culture. Anime in Japanese setting refers to a particular aesthetic technique involves specific stories and characters and kinetic art. Anime is Japan’s most diverse culture export, as it includes a variety of methods, genres, and themes (Poitras, 2014). In the modern era, the universal importance of anime has brought up ways of reaching several target audiences. It is, therefore, possible to provide a visual taste of Japanese contemporary life. People outside Japan who are interested in learning more about Japan’s cultural history watch their anime. They are, therefore, able to get a better grasp of Japanese culture, as is illustrated in particular anime (Yoshioka, 2014).

In spite of the heavy influence hailing from the western side of the globe, Japan has remained firm in its practices, culture, food, clothing, and etiquette. The socio-cultural connotation of anime depicts a consistently changing pattern that portrays a general cultural mood. Due to the unique nature of anime, in that it is possible to view it universally, it can be subject to aesthetic choices (Yoshioka, 2014). Anime is a way of expressing cultural identity while being put in check by the economic context, the target audience, and its exposure to the cinemas worldwide.

Miyazaki’s anime is by far considered entirely Japanese. In his art, Miyazaki puts into consideration the eastern view of nature. In his own country, Miyazaki gets regarded as a national treasure. He creates animated movies that uphold Japanese values and aspects of life. For example, in the film My Neighbor Totoro, the scenes of rural Japan and traditional Japan are not left out. Miyazaki’s films do not substitute the natural context to the characters. They feel the global is very attractive. Human relations are not the only exciting thing. Other things in this world are equally beautiful (Poitras, 2014). They include and not limited to weather, light, time, vegetation, wind, and aqua. All these things make up a beautiful landscape. For this reason, Miyazaki ensures they are all combined in his works as much as possible.

There are various ways in which the work of Hayao Miyazaki can be used to define nature. First, in line, nature is portrayed as pure and satisfied. In most cases, Miyazaki refers to the well-established Japanese traditional beliefs. Beliefs and religions continue to get practiced in Japan. Some of these cultures include the sacred spaces deep in the forest. These are very neglected and quiet places where humankind civilization cannot infiltrate.

Secondly, nature got portrayed as a horrifying power. In his movie, Nausicaa, nature expresses its anger in a destructive invasion by numerous huge insects (Poitras, 2014). Also in Gake no eu no Ponyo, an angry storm sinks a seaside town in its waves. In Princess Mononoke where the forests spirit’s head gets chopped off, and it produces a very horrifying menace which causes decay and destroys everything within its vicinity. These kinds of destruction sound’s more the same as God’s anger in the old testament (Poitras, 2014). Japanese know very well the fury of nature as they live in the earth’s most volcanically active areas. In the Japanese belief system, nature cannot get controlled by mere humans. Nature can take away humans’ property, our families, and our lives very first.

Thirdly, Miyazaki’s films portray nature as interactive, diverse, and evolving. The Sea of Decay, in the film Nausicaa, depicts a world full of plants, insects, and animals that are dangerous to humans and themselves mountain (Denison, 2011). Despite all these, they co-exist in harmony. The Sea of Decay, according to humans, it is not presentable, and it’s not appealing. Yet, Princess Nausicaa calls it beautiful. According to Hayao, nature does not only mean the beautiful flowers and trees, but there’s also more to nature’s beauty. The Sea of Decay continues to flourish despite the metallic objects and radioactive waste them (Cavallaro, 2015).

Introduction to Hayao Miyazaki’s anime

People regard Hayao Miyazaki as the best animator of his times. He has stood out for more than thirty years because of the style he uses, which incorporates aesthetics and his work habits. Hayao does not write scripts; his stories develop at the stage during movie production. In all his films, he repeats similar themes, such as opposition to war and state, ecology, and retrieval of past Japanese values in the present context (Poitras, 2014). Japanese values are highly engrossed in Shinto and Buddhism. It is from these two philosophies and his personal experiences that Miyazaki draws his ideas. This essay, therefore, looks into the Japanese cultural elements in Hayao Miyazaki’s anime.

This essay will look into some of his films such as Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, among others. In Hayao’s films, the personas interact with gods or spirits referred to as kami because he puts them in places visible to them (Cavallaro, 2015). In the three movies that we will discuss, each has an object that depicts kami. In Spirited away, the god is represented by a kami bathhouse, whereas in My Neighbor Totoro, it is a tree, and in the Princess Mononoke is a mountain. Therefore, Miyazaki uses essential Shinto characters to complement Japanese cultural elements in the present world. Shinto is a Japanese traditional belief system that entails honoring gods and nature, rituals cleansing, and continuation of divine and secular space in the world.

Shinto and Buddhism and their similarities

Traditionally, Shinto was a religion passed through word of mouth whose important lesson was to honor all living things. It has no scriptures, and its rites keep changing all over Japan. History depicts that the standing government either supports or restrains this religion. The government does not succeed in putting it to an end entirely or improve it as it remains the main religion in the whole of Japan (Cavallaro, 2015). In the sixth century, Buddhism came along and has seen support also in the belief system of Japan. Buddhism and Shinto have borrowed ideas from each other. Therefore, the two religions have complemented each other, making them appeal to a broader community. It has seen Shinto be able to articulate its ideas effectively through symbols and new ways of representations.

In Japanese religion, a sacred place is highly significant. The only form in which one can interact with kami (gods) or the other spirits is places of objects that Itare used as mediums for this communication. A sacred site is a highly organized place set aside and regarded as the home of a deity or supernatural powers. Interaction of Shinto and Buddhism religions resulted in a divine area that included a place where pilgrims passed through to the mountain (Denison, 2011). A vivid example of a sacred space is mandala, a traditional symbol of where Buddha lived. Mandala portrays the marks of the journey and the objective of pilgrims.

Despite Mandala hailing from a Buddhist religion, many symbols from its imagery derived from Shinto symbols. For example, nature is an overwhelming sign or symbol. If you compare the five Buddha in the representation, the mountain, the tree, and the deer seem to be much more prominent in sizes. The phrase ‘The Kasuga Deer Mandala’ is read from down upwards. The reading starts from the lowest point of the image going through the ‘toori.’ Toori is a Shinto symbol and architectural symbol that depicts the difference between the secular and the divine (Denison, 2011). The symbol shows how people change from the kingdom of men to the domain of gods. The mandala continues to ascend upwards to the deer, which is considered to be a holy animal and the tree on its saddle, which gets viewed as sacred. There is a circular object, gold in color. It represents the sun or the moon, depending on how one decides to interpret it, then the five Buddha in the imagery stands for five shrines. Finally, in the uppermost part, there are mountains. It is where people could interact with the divine.

The bottom-up reading of the words in the imagery represents the family hierarchies of Japanese culture. The unborn members of the family get represented in the lowermost part. The ancestors get placed at the uppermost part. Then the living gets placed at the center in the kingdom of men. To get into either of the groups, you must go through an entrance the same way pilgrims crossed through toori to get to the mountains (Hernández-Pérez, 2016). Hayao Miyazaki employs the symbols of Shinto, such as toori, in the film Spirited Away. When the movie is starting, the characters go through an old toori, which symbolizes the getting into the divine site. It puts a boundary between the non-spiritual and space where the personalities would commune with kami, the god.

How Miyazaki borrows into the Japanese cultural heritage in anime

In the past, people regarded mountains as sacred sites because of their geographical locations. In those times people occupied and carried out their activities in the plains whereas the hills get consecrated and no events take place there. The dead get buried and left in the mountains; hence, the mountains or the mountain regarded as part of a higher authority than the ordinary occurrences of men (Hernández-Pérez, 2016). There is a certain still from Princess Mononoke’s film. It is a historical monument set in the period of Muromachi in the year between 1333 and 1568 (Napier, 2012). It was the same period when Kasuga Deer Mandala gets set. It is this period that sets a mark between rural Japan and the start of modernization. During this period, the humans and the gods were fighting to own nature. Then the men got in and destroyed the kingdom of gods.

The first use of the still in Princess Mononoke film, shows the mountainous landscape in Japan and how the woods overpower the areas. The trees appearing in the forefront later disappear in the diminishing mountains. It is also possible to assume that they are occupied by nature as the plants shown in the foreground. The image lacks any source of artificial light, and the still is only illuminated by the moon. These elements reveal a very natural world where urbanization has not encroached. In this motionless picture, Miyazaki portrays a ‘daidarabotchi’ (Napier, 2012). It traditionally is a giant that creates lakes with its footsteps. Hayao Miyazaki ascribes the matters of life and death to this forest god, which during daytime changes into a ‘shishigami.’ During the day, it looks like a deer in shape for a customary Japanese mask for a countenance going towards the mountain areas. During night time, the image turns into a colossal nightwalker, with the tallness that matches that of the mountains. It turns into a very different nature as well as its surroundings. It is, therefore, gets perceived as a god, a spirit, as well as a mountain.

The illustration of ‘daidarabotchi’ reflects the traditional ideas of Shinto, where mountains were perceived to be sacred. Therefore, the gods lived in this space. Miyazaki continues to explain his perspective and means that the gods at the mountains can directly influence the lives and deaths of the people and everything around them. In the movie, an artificial tool in the form of a gun cuts off the forest god’s head, and everything else around him also dies.  The main characters in the film need to put back together with the god and its leader to reverse the outcome (Ruble and Lysne, 2010). In this context, it is vivid that Miyazaki is trying to show the importance of maintaining the environment.

Miyazaki’s movies bring out very clearly the abundant cultural elements of Japanese belief systems and religion. The movie ‘My Neighbor Totoro’ occurs in a rural set up where the beliefs about kami still exist in modern Japan. The film focusses on the occurrences where two young lasses become part of the spirit of a tree. At the initial stages of the movie, their father speaks to them about an enormous tree that surrounds their home. What he communicates to them is that since time immemorial, trees and humans used to get along very well.

This conversation portrays a foundational element in Shinto belief, which is to take care of all living things (Ruble and Lysne, 2010). In another of Hayao Miyazaki’s imagery, the characters visit the great tree to commune with the spirit requesting him to protect them. Similarly, in the ‘Kasuga Deer Mandala,’ the great tree which stands for nature overshadows the people represented. The rope is also another Shinto symbol used in this image. The linen has white papers winding around the great tree. It, therefore, detaches the sacred from profane.

Traditionally, the sacred area whose surroundings were trees gets consecrated for the worship of kami. In other words, these places referred to as shrines. The ancient Japanese people had embraced the belief that they could invite the presence of kami within the trees (Denison, 2011). Therefore they wound the white papers around the tree to direct kami. Hence, the association that the characters have with the forest kami gets centered on this tree. In the film My Neighbor Totoro, the tree acts as the home of kami where the two lasses are allowed to enter as they are considered holy. According to Shinto belief, a person must have ‘kokoro,’ which is a state where a person must have a pure and sacred heart and mind to commune with kami.

In the movie Spirited Away, Miyazaki highlights how the younger generation of Japan does not know their cultural endowment. The character Chihiro is an inspiration from a friend’s daughter. He felt that the lasses of similar age as her, watch films that have aspects of the same period as them. Yet they can hardly identify with them simply because they are characters of imagination that don’t bear a resemblance with them (Yoshioka, 2014). Chihiro is just a simple girl who goes through various challenges in her quest within the kami kingdom, and she conquers all. Spirited Away is one of Miyazaki’s films that carries a lot of Shinto and Buddhism religion in it. In another caption, it shows that Chihiro’s tour has ended.

The lass is seen holding hands with a spirit from the river.  The spirit aided her throughout the venture in the kami world. She is anticipating the green fields and the commencement of her life’s journey with the experiences and lessons learned throughout the film. There is a frog statue in the caption. It is a reminder of the many such idols placed by the doorways of the shrines. Others placed by the roadsides to ensure the passengers that they are protected (Yoshioka, 2014). In the background of the image are the mountains. Miyazaki puts them there to remind the viewers that the scene is in Japan. Amazingly, there is only one house in the plains, which is a section of kami’s kingdom. Then everything else in the vast is empty hence creating attention to nature.

Spirited away also demonstrates a very vital lesson from the Shinto religion. Shinto spells out that every living thing, including humans, river, trees are all substantially pure but can also get defiled. The scene of the film is a washroom where gods and spirits get cleansed so that they can do good to the people and the whole world (Cavallaro, 2015). The girl, Chihiro, overcomes a challenge whereby she washes a stinking god, which later turned into a contaminated river. Miyazaki has put in this section of the film his personal experience. A stream, very close to his home, was highly contaminated, and during the time of cleansing, a bicycle and many other wastes get removed from it. Another of Miyazaki’s images shows how Chihiro succeeds in removing the spirit from the contamination that had overpowered it (Cavallaro, 2015). It is the effect of the growing cities and the way of life in the modern world.

Conclusion

Hayao Miyazaki demonstrates the doctrines from Shinto and Buddhism religion to reconnect its principles to the modern setting. He directly refers to Japan’s history in his films, like in Princess Mononoke’s. He also borrows heavily into the religious symbols and images of Shinto and Buddha, like in Spirited Away and the film My Neighbor Totoro. Through his movies, Miyazaki tries to make people from Japan to always remember their rich cultural heritage (Adachi, 2012). To the audience from outside Japan, he is passing fundamental values to the world. Shinto religion existed long before the Japanese writing came to be. It has remained standing even this era of the 21^st century, where capitalism is the greatest enemy of its doctrines. The teaching of caring for all living things is very relevant to the modern Japanese setting as it creates an identity that the national is happy about it. Miyazaki brings back Shinto’s principles so that the contemporary setting can embrace them (Adachi, 2012).

References

Yoshioka, S. (2014). Heart of Japaneseness: history and nostalgia in Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away. In Japanese Visual Culture (pp. 268-285). Routledge.

Adachi, R. (2012). A study of Japanese animation as translation: A descriptive analysis of Hayao Miyazaki and other anime dubbed into English. Universal-Publishers.

Cavallaro, D. (2015). The anime art of Hayao Miyazaki. McFarland.

Denison, R. (2011). Transcultural creativity in anime: Hybrid identities in the production, distribution, texts, and fandom of Japanese anime. Creative Industries Journal, 3(3), 221-235.

Hernández-Pérez, M. (2016). Animation, branding, and authorship in the construction of the ‘anti-Disney’ ethos: Hayao Miyazaki’s works and persona through Disney film criticism. Animation, 11(3), 297-313.

Poitras, G. (2014). Contemporary anime in Japanese pop culture. In Japanese Visual Culture (pp. 60-79). Routledge.

Napier, S. J. (2012). The Anime Director, the Fantasy Girl, and the Very Real Tsunami. The Asia-Pacific Journal, 10(11), 3.

Ruble, J., & Lysne, K. (2010). The animated classroom: Using Japanese anime to engage and motivate students. English Journal, 37-46.