Spirited Away: Religious Themes In An Animated Film
Religious Themes in Spirited Away Spiritied Away is a widely popular animated film by Japan’s most famous animator, Miyazaki Hayao. This animated movie focuses on the story of a ten year old girl, Chihiro, who enters the spiritual realm while moving into a new town with her parents. Her experiences with the different characters she meets hones her personality, which ultimately allows her to return safely to the human world. Though it is more of a coming of age story, Miyazaki has included many religious contexts in his film. His film shows themes like ecology and recovery of Japanese values, which are notions deeply rooted in Buddhism and Shinto, the two main religions in Japan. He incorporates traditional religious ideas into his movie by representing them as physical entities and through the behaviors of his characters, effectively showing that folk beliefs and customs still
…show more content…
prevail within the modern and technological world. Before going into detail about the religious connotations in the movie, one must understand the type of religion Japan has.
Many Japanese claim that they are not religious even while performing what others may consider highly religious activities, like praying at a shrine. Reader states that, “Japanese people in general exhibit extremely high levels of religious activity and behavior, and Japanese society and culture are intricately interwoven with religious themes” (Reader 5). Due to this intertwined relation between culture and religion, it is not uncommon to use religious motifs in popular films like Spirited Away. As a result of the interrelation between religion and culture in the country, there is a blurred division between humans and spirits. For example, the Shinto religion is “is centered on the relationship between the Japanese people, the land and the kami” (23). This closeness between humans and deities is unique to the country of Japan. In his movie, Miyazaki draws upon this idea of unity between spirits and humans and uses it as the basis for characters for his
film. At the beginning of the movie, the viewers are taken on the car ride to the countryside with Chihiro, the main character. On the way to their new house, the parents decide to take a detour, going past small shrine structures, which are normally built to house spirits, and a torii. This is the first physical religious physical entity we see in the film. The torii represents the entry into a scared space. This introduces the idea of liminal spaces, where one passes a threshold (the tunnel) and enters liminal space (the abandoned amusement park) where the social order breaks down and one finds oneself in a new world. How she enters the liminal space is based on conventional beliefs that bridges, tunnels and cross roads serve as portals to new worlds. This can also be seen in the story of Izanagi and Izami as Izanagi had to pass through a tunnel to go to the realm of the dead to see Izanami. Furthermore, passing the threshold allows the social order between deities and humans are completely broken down as Chihiro, a human, is able to freely interact with the different deities in the new realm. Once in the abandoned amusement park, Chihiro’s parents find a sumptuous dinner laid out in front of them and help themselves to it. This act of greediness transforms them into pigs. This scenario is based on both Buddhist and Shinto teachings. Reader claims that kamis must be venerated so that they would reciprocate kindness undo humans. However, the act of eating the food offerings to the kamis is extremely disrespectful so the parents are punished by being turned into pigs. The idea of greed also ties in with the Buddhist ideology of karma. LaFleur’s states in In and Out the Rokudo: Kyokai and the Formation of Medieval Japan that “everything depends on the life lived now and the karma engendered in the present. The system thus makes each person individually responsible for his or her own future. Injustice is an impossibility” (29). The parents gained bad karma due to their greed and now have to suffer and face their consequences as pigs. This motif of greed is prevalent throughout the story, in the character of No-face (tries to use gold to gain Chihiro), Yubaba (overlooks kidnapping of Boh due to gold), and even Haku (greedy for Yubaba’s power). As Chihiro enters the bathhouse, the audience discover that though the deities look disfigured or have an abnormal shape, their behaviors are surprisingly humane in character. Reader argues that Shinto kamis have human traits and “they just as humans, are prone to pique, jealousy, rage and other disruptive human habits which can disrupt the flow of life and cause problems” (Reader 27). This is especially evident when No-Face gets out of control and tries to gain Chihiro by bribing her with money. All the other spirits gave into their greed and did as they were told. However, Chihiro still declined his offer, No-Face got extremely mad and destroys the bathhouse as he chases after Chihiro. Another interesting fact about No-face is his mask, which closely represents the masks used in Noh theater during the Mudomachi period. The mask hides the true nature of the character and gives hints to the monster that may lay beneath it. Miyazaki’s choice to use a bathhouse as his main setting is also very interesting. According to Shinto beliefs, all living things and nature itself, that are inherently pure can become contaminated. (RJP 456). In this setting, the kamis enter the bathhouse to purify themselves so that they can return back to doing good. Also noteworthy is the physical appearance of the spirits who work in the bathhouse. They have very earthly feature, like frogs or toads, while the guests (actual deities) have varying forms, depending on what they represent. This somewhat implies that figuratively, all the cleaning of the kamis are done by humans. This is especially evident when the ‘stink god’ enters the bath house. After much difficulty Chihiro is able to pull out the all the pollution from the ‘stink god’, who turns out to be a polluted river. He rewards her by giving her a medical herb ball. Furthermore, Yubaba, seeing how hard Chihiro is working, decides to lend her a hand in cleaning the ‘stink god’. In this particular case furthers strengthens the notion of reciprocal relationship between kamis and humans. In this particular story, there are many homeless spirits. Haku, the water god, and No-Face all represent deities who no longer have anywhere else to go. Haku used to be a river god, but humans drained him for house development, taking away from him his resting place. This allowed Yubaba to plant an evil bug in him, contaminating him. No-Face is a homeless, wanderer God, who represents contemporary Japan. Miyazaki is trying to make the point that both the citizens of Japan and No-Face are similar in the sense that they think money will make them happy. This ties in with the Shinto belief of returning back to one’s roots. Miyazaki continuously uses religious themes in his movie, either as physical entities or through behaviors of his characters to remind his audience about Japan’s rich and cultural heritage. He wants people to remember their roots, which is closely tied into Shinto and Buddhist beliefs, and use them in their daily lives even now in the 21st century.
prevail within the modern and technological world. Before going into detail about the religious connotations in the movie, one must understand the type of religion Japan has.
Many Japanese claim that they are not religious even while performing what others may consider highly religious activities, like praying at a shrine. Reader states that, “Japanese people in general exhibit extremely high levels of religious activity and behavior, and Japanese society and culture are intricately interwoven with religious themes” (Reader 5). Due to this intertwined relation between culture and religion, it is not uncommon to use religious motifs in popular films like Spirited Away. As a result of the interrelation between religion and culture in the country, there is a blurred division between humans and spirits. For example, the Shinto religion is “is centered on the relationship between the Japanese people, the land and the kami” (23). This closeness between humans and deities is unique to the country of Japan. In his movie, Miyazaki draws upon this idea of unity between spirits and humans and uses it as the basis for characters for his
film. At the beginning of the movie, the viewers are taken on the car ride to the countryside with Chihiro, the main character. On the way to their new house, the parents decide to take a detour, going past small shrine structures, which are normally built to house spirits, and a torii. This is the first physical religious physical entity we see in the film. The torii represents the entry into a scared space. This introduces the idea of liminal spaces, where one passes a threshold (the tunnel) and enters liminal space (the abandoned amusement park) where the social order breaks down and one finds oneself in a new world. How she enters the liminal space is based on conventional beliefs that bridges, tunnels and cross roads serve as portals to new worlds. This can also be seen in the story of Izanagi and Izami as Izanagi had to pass through a tunnel to go to the realm of the dead to see Izanami. Furthermore, passing the threshold allows the social order between deities and humans are completely broken down as Chihiro, a human, is able to freely interact with the different deities in the new realm. Once in the abandoned amusement park, Chihiro’s parents find a sumptuous dinner laid out in front of them and help themselves to it. This act of greediness transforms them into pigs. This scenario is based on both Buddhist and Shinto teachings. Reader claims that kamis must be venerated so that they would reciprocate kindness undo humans. However, the act of eating the food offerings to the kamis is extremely disrespectful so the parents are punished by being turned into pigs. The idea of greed also ties in with the Buddhist ideology of karma. LaFleur’s states in In and Out the Rokudo: Kyokai and the Formation of Medieval Japan that “everything depends on the life lived now and the karma engendered in the present. The system thus makes each person individually responsible for his or her own future. Injustice is an impossibility” (29). The parents gained bad karma due to their greed and now have to suffer and face their consequences as pigs. This motif of greed is prevalent throughout the story, in the character of No-face (tries to use gold to gain Chihiro), Yubaba (overlooks kidnapping of Boh due to gold), and even Haku (greedy for Yubaba’s power). As Chihiro enters the bathhouse, the audience discover that though the deities look disfigured or have an abnormal shape, their behaviors are surprisingly humane in character. Reader argues that Shinto kamis have human traits and “they just as humans, are prone to pique, jealousy, rage and other disruptive human habits which can disrupt the flow of life and cause problems” (Reader 27). This is especially evident when No-Face gets out of control and tries to gain Chihiro by bribing her with money. All the other spirits gave into their greed and did as they were told. However, Chihiro still declined his offer, No-Face got extremely mad and destroys the bathhouse as he chases after Chihiro. Another interesting fact about No-face is his mask, which closely represents the masks used in Noh theater during the Mudomachi period. The mask hides the true nature of the character and gives hints to the monster that may lay beneath it. Miyazaki’s choice to use a bathhouse as his main setting is also very interesting. According to Shinto beliefs, all living things and nature itself, that are inherently pure can become contaminated. (RJP 456). In this setting, the kamis enter the bathhouse to purify themselves so that they can return back to doing good. Also noteworthy is the physical appearance of the spirits who work in the bathhouse. They have very earthly feature, like frogs or toads, while the guests (actual deities) have varying forms, depending on what they represent. This somewhat implies that figuratively, all the cleaning of the kamis are done by humans. This is especially evident when the ‘stink god’ enters the bath house. After much difficulty Chihiro is able to pull out the all the pollution from the ‘stink god’, who turns out to be a polluted river. He rewards her by giving her a medical herb ball. Furthermore, Yubaba, seeing how hard Chihiro is working, decides to lend her a hand in cleaning the ‘stink god’. In this particular case furthers strengthens the notion of reciprocal relationship between kamis and humans. In this particular story, there are many homeless spirits. Haku, the water god, and No-Face all represent deities who no longer have anywhere else to go. Haku used to be a river god, but humans drained him for house development, taking away from him his resting place. This allowed Yubaba to plant an evil bug in him, contaminating him. No-Face is a homeless, wanderer God, who represents contemporary Japan. Miyazaki is trying to make the point that both the citizens of Japan and No-Face are similar in the sense that they think money will make them happy. This ties in with the Shinto belief of returning back to one’s roots. Miyazaki continuously uses religious themes in his movie, either as physical entities or through behaviors of his characters to remind his audience about Japan’s rich and cultural heritage. He wants people to remember their roots, which is closely tied into Shinto and Buddhist beliefs, and use them in their daily lives even now in the 21st century.