Shintoism In Princess Mononoke

Human search for meaning in Shinto is based off of their beliefs, rituals, origins and culture. There are four components that make up the Shinto human search of meaning, Simplicity, one with the world, peace within the world and the individual journey to self-discovery and potential. Simplicity refers to the lack of scripture, rules and expectations the individual to interpret hoe they are to live their lives. Peace with the world is to be what the individual interprets to be the best person they can have an optimistic approach to the world encouraging world peace and peace within themselves. One with the world refers to the immanent nature of the religion, the way the world is viewed individually contributing to their connection with the

Firstly, the traditions within Shintoism were important to help the Japanese people to connect with their ancestors and the nature around them. The word ‘Shinto’ itself means way of the gods. It is as old as the Japanese culture and was the only religion in Japan until the 6th century. According to the Shinto religion, there exists a basic life force called kami. Kami are close to human beings and respond to human prayers. They can influence the course of natural forces, and human events. Shinto tradition says that there are eight million kami in Japan. Due to their deep respect and love for nature and Japan itself, many shrines were set up in places of natural beauty. Followers went to pray here to receive good fortune and samurai would often go to the shrines to pray for victory before and after battle. Shinto’s traditions involved having a clean lifestyle. They washed and bathed everyday which made most of japan a fresh

Director, screenwriter, and producer, Stephen Spielberg, has been often described by critics as being one of the trailblazers who paved the way for the new Hollywood era. In fact, one of Spielberg’s earliest films, JAWS, captured the audience’s attentions so vividly that the movie remains to be a cult classic even decades later. The audience sunk its teeth deep into the enticing combination of drama, thrill, science-fiction, and adventure the film obtained. At face value, JAWS appears to be focused on a giant monstrous fish, but with further analyzation of the plot structure, narration, and original music demonstrates the brilliance and complexity of why JAWS is a well deserving Oscar-winning movie.

Fairy tales are timeless entities that will always be relevant in people’s lives. Fairy tales and stories offer entertainment, advice, and moral examples. The creation of fairy tales is important in the development of social norms. Children everywhere would read fairy tales and learn from them. As a result, these fairy tales are translated into multiple languages and allows people with different backgrounds to understand and relate to the story. People take these stories and adapt them to life around them. Within these adaptations of the same story, it is normal to observe slight differences that contribute as evidence in identifying the culture or societies in which these stories come from. Whether it is the slang of the dialogue or the change of location, modern producers and writers are known to take these classic stories and adding a significant twist to adjust to their cultural agenda. The movie, The Princess and the Frog, is a modern example of writers and directors creating a modern twist to the popular story of the Brother Grimm’s The Frog King. The Princess and the Frog and The Frog King both encode the mores, values, and beliefs of the cultures of the societies from which they come because, even though they both have similar plot ideas, the differences of the location and the differences of the overall specific plotlines attribute to understanding how their own specific cultures influence the adaptation and the actual story.

The nobles of Japan claim that they are the descendants of the five gods which Susanoo-Wo created. In Japanese art Amaterasu is seated with her other brother Tsukuyomi no Mikoto, who is the moon god. The cocks from the myth are associated with her and the rising sun. In Japan the Ise Grand Shrine is the most important Shinto shrine. It is dedicated to Amaterasu, and represented with three of her symbols. The cocks, the mirror, and a raven (who is believed to be her messenger.) The mirror is called the Yata no Kagami, held in the center of Japan at the Great Shrine at Ise. The mirror has been hidden for over a thousand of years but it is said to have eight sides which is also Shinto’s number of perfection.

The supernatural powers and deities of Shinto are Kami. Kami are not Gods but spirits that intervene with humans that do not live in a separate dimension but in the same dimension as humans. Kami can take form of elements of nature such as rivers, mountains, storms and earthquakes but they were also the deities that created the universe as stated in their holy text. They can also be spirits that take the form of the living and the souls of humans that have demonstrated outstanding achievement (such as soldiers that gave up their lives for war, emperors and leaders) becoming Kami after their death. Kami are also the ancestors and protectors of human beings. Kami can also influence the course of nature and events of humans. They like the human

Shinto and Buddhism are two different traditions that have flourished in Japan for hundreds of years. Generally, followers from one of the traditions tend to follow the guidance of the other as well, which makes the relationship between Shinto and Buddhism very rare in world religions. At first, when these two traditions contacted each other in ancient Japan, there was a lot of confusion, but eventually they were able to coexist. However, even though Buddhism and Shinto share similarities regarding flexibility and independence, there are more differences between them proven by Buddhism’s spread to ancient Japan, their contrasting practices and beliefs and the different outlooks on the afterlife.

The director Miyazaki utilizes both physical and visual elements as represented by the characters, in order to communicate and individualize unique character traits and contrasting personalities. Miyazaki’s placing emphasis on character development is a significant aspect of not only the narrative, but also asserts how each gender is represented in a different way.

The Japanese culture has been greatly influenced by its religions, and one of the most influential religions has been Shintoism. Shintoism has been dated back to 500BC, when the descendants of the sun goddess, Amaterasu-OmiKami, worshiped the gods and goddesses of Japan. Shinto means "way of the gods" and that represents what people who practice Shintoism believe in. Shintoism is a religion based on Japanese mythology, which is centered on a male god, Izanagi, and a female goddess, Izanami. These two gods were believed to have created Japan, which was thought to be the only land in the whole word. The two gods had two children, the sun goddess Amaterasu, and the storm god, Susanowo. These two gods fought over control of the people of

In this modern era the gulf between modernized nations and nations who are not grows constantly, and if a country hopes to bridge the growing gap they must advance quickly. As with any other growth, growing pains are routine. Among others is the pain of the existence of generations whose world is changed completely over the course of a lifetime. In few places is this effect starker than in Japan’s modern history, a country whose traditional ideals had to find a way to adapt modern westernized ideals to a historically traditional nation in a small amount of time. This era, the Meiji Restoration, put Japan through their growing pains and pushed the country to compete on the global level. Natsume Soseki offers a character whose relationships in the novel “Kokoro” are analogous to the progression and end of this Meiji era and how it effected the individual and their perceptions of change.

In the essentially dual religious system in Japan, ideologies and traditions play a heavy role in the everyday life of the Japanese people. Shintoism and Buddhism intertwine and complement themselves in Japanese culture, despite Buddhism coming in from mainland Asia. A particularly powerful idea from Buddhism is mono no aware, the realization and acknowledgment of the impermanence and its place in the world. This idea that nothing stays the same forever manifests itself heavily in Japanese literature, whether in personal writings or fictional works. Despite spanning hundreds of years, each work was shaped by and include manifestations of mono no aware. I intend to underline and pinpoint instances that mono no aware is influencing these works, and discuss similarities and differences between them. In this paper, I have three works that I will explore, each one corresponding to a different time period before the pre-industrial revolution; The Diary of Lady Murasaki comes from the classical period, Essays in Idleness from the medieval, and the immensely popular play Chushingura from the pre-modern era.

deities act “harmoniously” with one another. Nature, in turn, is a vital part of both the spiritual world and the human world; “Japanese love and reverence for nature lies at the root of Shinto”. For many other religions, this is not the case. For Western religions, the “Creator and the created, and the human and natural realms” do not relate with one another immediately. The Shinto religion can again be seen acting in a more spiritual way than any other religion. The spirituality of Shinto and its people can be expressed further:

The way Hayao Miyazaki entices his viewers to accept his idea about a new relationship between nature and humanity was never really talked about or discussed in the past couple of years. The film ‘My Neighbor Totoro,’ with all the religious elements and the social impact it had established the director Miyazaki as one of the best animators not just in Japan, but around the world. What really gives this film power and fame is not just the mysterious and magical world it has or the cute character that Miyazaki created, but also the film’s way of influencing the audience by conveying an unfamiliar message about this three-layered relationship between nature and humans. Comparing both Miyazaki’s childhood memories and the story depicted helps him connect the audience’s feelings with the characters and making this realistic representation of human emotion in the film believable and realistic not only to children, but even to adults. What also makes the world more familiar to the spectators is the director’s use of a common fear from many people’s early years in this unknown and magical world. This common fear is clearly illustrated when the girls meet Susuwatari, a black spirit in the old empty house that stays in dark spaces and prefers to be left alone, and only children can see it. The introduction of this spirit is a good transition between the world of magic and reality. It confirms and insists about the existence of the unknown, and introduces a world of illusion and

Ideology is attitudes, beliefs, perceptions that commonly shared by the people in society. It is mostly unconscious and it appears in everyday human’s daily lives. Cinema is one of the medium that people can be exposed. Therefore the ideology in film takes a powerful role that shapes aspects of people’s beliefs. When it comes to a film, people who watch the film receive a message from it whether that message is explicit or not. Ideology can be most receptive and powerful when it is exposed to the audience when they are enjoying the film and are unaware of it (Edgar-Hunt, Marland and Rawle 96). In Spirited Away, the movie sends out many aspects of ideology in Japanese society. This essay is going to be focusing on two particular aspects which are Shinto beliefs and human versus nature.

Many directors use their films as a means of glorifying, criticizing, or simply depicting, a particular ideological system. These ideologies are especially visible in foreign films, as the viewer is forced to assess the film from outside his or her culture and ideology, and consider the film in its proper context. Director Akira Kurosawa’s Japanese film Seven Samurai allows the viewer to understand several important aspects of Japanese culture and ideology. First, the film depicts the Japanese social class structure and its acceptance by the masses. Seven Samurai also reveals the pride of the Japanese, as well as the utilitarian, collectivist nature of their society.