Mononoke Hime

This is the second post of my Solidarity with Japan series, and this little project will go on! And you can hop on board anythime: Simply make a post on your blog that is somehow related to Japan, and devote it to the poor Japanese people who are suffering there at the moment. Then link back to one of my posts I have written as a sign of solidarity with Japan, so I will know you are partaking.  And please also ask your own readers to do the same and become part of this solidarity project! It is just a little effort, but it means so much! I will give a shout out to everybody who joins in my next post.

What exactly you write is totally up to you – it just has to do with Japan and express your solidarity. You can cook a Japanese dish, make a poem, post pictures from Japan or Japanese art, write your favorite prayer, post a piece of Japanese music, or write about somebody from Japan you admire for what he  or she has done.

Andrew has already made a post, and he has wonderfully applied the idea of this little project. Thank you so, so much! Andrew himself is a great runner and also loves to ride his bike, so he devoted a post to the Japanese road racing champion Fumiyuki Beppu. Please check it out!

And the wonderful Christine has made a post about anime series she recently watched, including Clamp’s Chobits and the heart-warming Kare Kano. She even included links to where you can watch both series online, and I cannot wait to do that! Thank you so much, Christine!

Several others already told me in their comments on my last post that they wanted to join, and I am looking forward to reading with what you will come up!

~ beautiful theme from Mononoke Hime, written by Joe Hisaishi ~

Today’s post is going to be about one of my favorite anime movies, Mononoke Hime (which can be translated as “demon princess”), a production of the Ghibli Studios that were founded by Hayao Miyazaki. Animated cartoon films (anime) and cartoons (manga) have a long tradition in Japan, and, different from the western world, they are not only made for children, but for adults as well. You can find all kinds of genre adapted by anime and manga.

A thing I especially love about Hayao Miyazaki’s movies is that they often touch a very deep, philosophical dimension, and the stories are based upon ecological and humanitarian values. And I also love the style of his drawings and character design.

~ Ashitaka and San, the main characters of the story ~

The story is situated in a land that resembles medieval Japan, and it is not only inhabited by humans, but also by the deities of nature from Japanese mythology, which appear as giant animals in the movie. In the beginning of the movie, Ashitaka, a prince from the Emishi people (who are called Ezo today), gets attacked by a giant wild boar, a deity of nature which was wounded and poisoned by a bullet and turns into a demon of hatred.

~ Ashitaka fighting the demon god ~

Although Ashitaka can defeat it and save the village of his people, he got hurt during the fight, and now the venom of hatred is flowing in his venes as well and dooms him to death. He sets off to find out where the bullet comes from that wounded the wild boar deity, also hoping to find a way to heal himself from the venom.

~ Ashitaka on his riding deer ~

His way finally leads him to a town that is ruled by the Lady Eboshi, where people have built ironworks and started to clear the surrounding forests to fuel their fires, not knowing that they are about to destroy the forest of the Shishigami, the holy spirit of the forest. These people have invented fire arms and made the bullet that turned the wild boar into a demon.

~ Lady Eboshi ~

Ashitaka gets swept up in the fight between Lady Eboshi and her people and the forest spirits that are supported by San, a girl that lives with the wolves.

~ San and the wolves ~

Ashitaka wants to help her and mediate between her and the humans who destroy the forests, and on his journey he gets deep into the holy forest of the Shishigami. This forest is also populated by kodama, little tree spirits from Japanese mythology.

~ tree spirits ~

The Shishigami appears as a deer with a ramified antler during the day, and in the night he walks the land as a giant of flowing light.

~ Shishigami, the forest spirit ~

In the end of the movie, Lady Eboshi hunts the Shishigami to conquer the forest, and she shoots his head off with her gun in the moment when he turns into the night walker. By doing so, she upsets the balance of the world, and what happens then shows some eerie parallels to what has occurred in Japan during the past days: The forest deity’s body starts to rotten and turns into slime while he is looking for his head, and the forest and lands are swept by a wave of slime that carries everything away and contaminates everything and everybody it touches with its venom. The island with the town on it gets surrounded by the slime, and then flooded, and the ironworks are set on fire while the people are trying to save themselves.

It is Ashitaka and San who are able to find the forest spirit’s head, give it back to him, and thus restore the balance of life. In the end, nature reclaims what the humans have tried to take away from it, and the message of the story is that humans should live with nature, not against it.

Have you seen the movie? If not, I highly recommend to watch it and enjoy the beauty of the drawings, the music, and the touching story. For now, I will leave you will a little forest spirit happiness. The music is the kodama theme from the movie.