The film has rich cultural underpinnings with heavy emphasis on the Shinto ideology. Shinto is a long-held ideology in the Japanese society that believes all physical entities have living souls called kami. They can be manifested in rocks, trees, rivers, animals, places and people. According to Rarick, “Kami is an elusive concept and can be found not only in shrines but also in trees, mountains, water, and even people” (Rarick, 1994). In the film, kami is the biggest element. The opening screen time already underscores Miyazaki’s Shinto implications as he zooms in on the vast blue sky, a close-up of the flower bouquet in Chihiro’s hands, the river and the forest. Nature is given significant attention all throughout the film as evidenced by their relatively longer screen time with apparent frame focus. Additionally, there are further references to Shintoism in the film; they are, inter alia, the stone shrines in the woods and the kami statues.

Another cultural dimension is the bathhouse. Traditionally, people went to bathhouses not only for washing but also for relaxation and sociability. The film shows the significance of bathhouses as means of cleansing and rejuvenating, i.e. “stink spirit”/spirit of the polluted river. Contemporarily, Japanese people prefer “onsen” or hot springs to traditional bathing facilities, i.e. bathhouses. The film reflects this somewhat “fading” tradition of bathhouses when Miyazaki uses spirits instead of real human beings in its portrayal.

Confucianism, an ideology that has penetrated the Japanese society and has subsequently been integrated into its culture, is likewise introduced in the film. This is represented by the character development of Chihiro and No-Face (kaonashi). Confucianism seeks to bring about a harmonious society; the basic teachings center on how people relate to each other (Sugimoto, 2009). On the one hand, Chihiro begins the film as a weakling whose cowardice subtly reflects in her actions towards her parents and her environment. She was a nuisance. However, as the story progresses, she develops important values necessary to save her parents from Yubaba. She grows into an independent, clever and responsible human being who is able to handle herself and those around her. No-Face (kaonashi), on the other hand, is a troubled spirit that has no identity of his own. According to Miyazaki, “No-Face (kaonashi) is the kind of spirit that lives within us”. He is lost, continuously nagging the workers, ingesting them to grab their personality and physical attributes. Like humans, No-Face seeks constant affection and belongingness in which case he winds up causing chaos in the bathhouse. Nonetheless, his character is redeemed after a close interaction with Chihiro, whom he is very fond of. Sugimoto opines that in Confucianism, “there is an emphasis on self-perfection, which can be accomplished through self-cultivation” (Sugimoto, 2009). The way Miyazaki portrays this concept in the film is especially remarkable because we can delineate how the two characters share some attributes without losing their individuality. Prior to self-cultivation, both their social proclivity appears to be detrimental to the harmony of the surrounding. However, as both of them learn the workings of life, — Chihiro all by herself and No-Face with Chihiro’s countenance — they are able to grasp their true identity and purpose.

Through Spirited Away, Hayao Miyazaki has not only produced an anime that is unequivocally high-grossing worldwide but has simultaneously brought the audience into the realm of Japanese tradition and culture.

Sources

Rarick, C. A. (1994). The Philosophical Impact of Shintoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism on Japanese Management Practices. International Journal of Value-Based Management, 7(3), 219-226.

Sugimoto, Yoshio. [Ed.]. (2009). The Cambridge Companion to Modern Japanese Culture. New York: Cambridge University Press.

(Undated). No-Face [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://ghibli.fandom.com/wiki/No-Face#cite_ref-0

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