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Princess Mononoke

Good Essays

Science and religion are often viewed as two diametrically opposed practices where one is used to refute the other, or one is held in a higher regard. Science is modernity; progress, enlightenment and cold logistics while religion is spiritual, traditional, and perhaps archaic. Rarely are the two viewed through a ‘both-and’ lens in which neither is greater or lesser, or more true or false. The 1997 film Princess Mononoke, deals with the relationship between science and religion and effectively shows that the two must coexist or face inevitable mutual destruction.
The movie follows the journey of Ashitaka, an Emishi prince who has been cursed after slaying a god-like boar, turned demonic by an iron bullet, on his quest to find a cure for his …show more content…

This mirrors the Draper-White thesis in that religion and science cannot coexist as religion will eventually give way to scientific progress. In the context of Princess Mononoke, this thesis is demonstrated in a literal way as we are shown that the sacred and profane are both true and real. The Deer God, Moro, and the other forest spirits are real, living beings that the characters interact with and contend with. Thus, the forest and the spirits act as the personification of religion while Lady Eboshi and her drive for modernization represents science. Their clash mimics the real-world clashing of the two ideologies but the film demonstrates the consequences of such conflict, and the detrimental effects both on a large scale and a personal scale. In one scene, a tribe of boars comes to the forest to help defend it from the humans. However, it is made clear to the boars that they will not succeed if they fight the humans (1:11). Regardless, the boars go to war, and are killed in the process while their leader becomes a demon By sacrificing everything for the sake of protecting the sacred, the Boar Tribe is wiped out; victims of their own actions. Similarly, Lady Eboshi participates in her own downfall. In her pursuit of the Deer God, Iron Town is left under-defended and an army of samurais attempt to break through the defenses. As a result, the women who work …show more content…

One scene in particular explains the dilemma facing San as Moro and Ashitaka argue over who San truly is: a wolf or a human. Moro argues that San is “a daughter of our tribe. If the woods die, so will she (1:20).” However, Ashitaka argues San is human to which Moro responds “She is neither human nor wolf,” (1:21). This is exchange supports the role of San as neither the mundane nor the profane, but it can be inferred that perhaps she is a mixuture of the two; a ‘both-and’. As a result of this, her fate is tied to the outcome of the conflict. However, the only outcome that is beneficial for her would be coexistence between the forest and humans. The film provides such an example of peaceful coexistence between humans and the spiritual in the scenes of Ashitaka’s village. The village is portrayed as peaceful and serene while Iron Town is chaotic with activity. This diachotamy can be attributed to the village’s approach to the spiritual that is demonstrated in the scene after Ashitaka has mortally wounded the rampaging boar-god. An old woman referred to as the ‘Oracle’ bows before the dying god and declares that, “where you have fallen, we will raise a mound and perform rites (00:07:),” indicating that village’s religious practices are ritualistic with shamanistic elements that

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