Themes Of Japan 's Indigenous Religion

Princess Mononoke, released in 1997, was the highest grossing film in Japan until Titanic came out later that year. It was supposed to be Hayao Miyazaki’s last film before he went into retirement, again (spoiler alert, he came out of retirement), and is praised as one of his absolute masterpieces, right beside Spirited Away, which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Today, I will be critiquing two articles that discuss aspects of Princess Mononoke’s themes and influences, one that relates Shintoism to Miyazaki’s narratives by Oscar Garza, and another that focuses on the icons found throughout his filmography by Mohammad Amzad Hossain and Wei-Hsin Fu.

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

Princess Mononoke was released in 1997, and became the highest grossing film in Japan until Titanic came out later that year. It was meant to be director Hayao Miyazaki’s last film before he went into retirement, and is praised as one of his absolute masterpieces. Today, I will be critiquing two articles that discuss aspects of Princess Mononoke’s themes and influences, one that relates Shintoism to Miyazaki’s narratives by Oscar Garza, and another that focuses on the icons found throughout his filmography by Mohammad Amzad Hossain and Wei-Hsin Fu.

Many religions are popular within the Japanese culture. Two of the most influential religions, Shinto and Buddhism that help shaped a lot of Japanese values are Shinto and Buddhism, played a large role in shaping Japanese values. Numerous similarities and differences run between these two religions; nonetheless, the Japanese often believe in more than one religion at the same time. This is possible due to the polytheistic nature of most popular religions in Japan. It is not hard to say that religion is a big part of Japanese culture because a lot of religious beliefs can still be seen in their everyday lives.

The religions in ancient Japan had very calming and nonviolent beliefs. Ancient Japan had two main religions, Buddhism and Shinto which are similar religions. Japan had a few side religions like Confucianism and Christianity. Some of Ancient Japan’s main religions are; Shinto’s nature based religion, Buddhism’s complicated beliefs, and Confucianism’s philosophical religion. First of all, Shinto is a nature based religion.

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

Japanese Americans practice a wide range of religions. Those religions are Buddhism, Shinto, and Christianity. Many Japanese tradition has been influenced by practices of Shinto and Buddhist. Massive amounts of Japanese Americans that continue to practice Buddhism. Many traditions and festivals revolve around Buddhist Institutions. For example, the Obon Festival, Which occurs in the summer, provides a chance for them to reconnect with their traditions and customs, and to eventually pass those traditions to the young. Those type of festivals are common when there are large populations of Japanese Americans. A reasonable number of Japanese people in and out are secular. Shinto and Buddhism are most often practiced by funerals or marriages, not

For thousands of years, religion has been a vital part of society. But you may not know its roots in ancient history. Religion's roots began in Ancient Rome. Early forms of Roman religion began with nature. This was the belief in spirits in the world around someone. Thanks to Greek influence, the Romans adopted several of the Greek gods and goddesses as their own. These Greek to Roman transitions included Pluto {Hades}, and Jupiter {Zeus}. However, Japan did not adopt any Greek gods and goddesses as their own, and did not worship any cults. Despite all this, both Rome and Japan have 1 thing in common: they both have some type of organized religion that citizens worship in. They both have several types of organized religions that citizens followed.

In Japanese society, elements of Shintoism, Buddhism, and Christianity are found woven within its culture. Major holidays that are celebrated in Japan are: Hatsumode, Obon, and Christmas, which all derive out of three different religions. Hatsumode, a Shinto celebration, is the first shrine visit of the year on New Year's Day, where the idea of a ‘new beginning’ is heavily emphasized. A majority of the Japanese population will visit Shinto shrine or Buddhist temples to worship for happiness, success and a healthy life and a year. After they pray, they continue on to buy new omamori, a good-luck charm for the year, and omikuji, a fortune telling paper that predicts luck and success in just about anything.

On an ordinary Saturday afternoon, my sister and I made our way to 1st St. and Central Ave. from a failed attempt at another left-to-be-unnamed cultural epicenter, which was a very disappointing trip. Little Tokyo proved to be quite the opposite, as I was able to ascertain a much deeper understanding of the Japanese culture because of it, and at the same time was able to reflect on the differences and similarities of my Filipino heritage. From what I was able to gather, the Japanese and Filipino cultures have quite a few significant differences, but have more similarities than I originally anticipated.

Shinto is the native religion of Japan that has been around since 1000 B.C.E and is still practised today. Shinto is a polytheist religion in which they worship many deities known as kami, the word Shinto means 'the way of the gods', and it was derived from Chinese ( shen dao), “shin” meaning kami and “to” meaning a philosophical path.( Honcho 2012)

Japan’s ancient religion, Shinto, has been an influence in the way that Japanese view nature. “Starting about 500 BCE (or earlier) it was originally "an amorphous mix of nature worship, fertility cults, divination techniques, hero worship, and shamanism”” (Robinson). Japanese have learned from religion to respect, nurture and be gentle to nature. They believe that “all human life and human nature is sacred” (Robinson). Nature to them is an art; a way of living. “Kami are the spirits or phenomena that are worshiped in the religion of Shinto. They are elements in nature, animals…” (“Kami”). Japan has grown from Shinto to honor nature.

Nature, spirits, and life’s existence are important to the Shinto religion. The way in which spirits existed towards humans can be seen as follows: “In their world myriad spirits shone like fireflies and every tree and bush could speak”. Religion had manifested itself into the Shinto religion. Nature was the main religious symbol of the religion. The kami, or religious Gods and spirits could be found everywhere in the Shinto life and religion.

All around the world, religion is a dominant idea for many cultures; exemplifying a certain way of life, serving as a basis for faith, and bringing charity to the world, religion is a extensive concept. For several cultures and countries religion may vary according to demographics, socio-economical class, and ethnicity. Main concepts of religion in Japan are natural and superstitious based. The leading religion in Japan remains Shinto, while other religions have come and go, interweaving themselves among the Japanese society.

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.