A Sociological Analysis: Spirited Away into a Capitalistic Japan
- mizuky
- Mar 28, 2020
- 10 min read
This post is going to be a little different. While it was something I wrote for class, I decided to post it on my blog because of how special it was to me. I hope that by sharing my analysis, you all will come to appreciate and love not only the movie, but life in a different way.
By no means is it perfect, but it was a joy to work on. I hope to continue to work on this throughout the year, as I feel like there is much more that I can improve on and add on!
Revered by many as a childhood classic, Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away is more than meets the eye. Under the facade of a fantasized coming of age story is the gruelingly raw, yet beautiful reality that is the very world we live in. In this sociological analysis, I will explore and breakdown Miyazaki's use of creative sociological imagination in his depiction and characterization of the sociological effects within society and nature around us; Japan and its capitalistic history; and social class.
Written by Hayao Miyazaki, Spirited Away is the story of a regular 10-year old girl named Chihiro, and her journey through the Spirit World, as a seemingly inconspicuous encounter with a mysteriously abandoned theme park turns her parents into pigs. In the Spirit World, Chihiro must do what she can to fit in and survive amongst spirits of all kinds by working in a bathhouse run by the witch named Yubaba that cursed her parents. Not to mention, it's a bathhouse that is meant to serve spirits that are tired and exhausted. During her journey, she befriends a variety of spirits, such as a dragon named Haku, who help bring her closer to breaking the curse and freeing her parents.
Before the film even starts, we're hit with gentle sounds of a piano that, to most, evoke a sense of nostalgia.
The music continues as Chihiro's family is casually introduced in their ride to their new home. It isn't long before we learn that the move to a new city has left Chihiro forlorn and reluctant to start a new life. And while it may not seem like much is happening in the car, Miyazaki has already used music and visuals to set us up, as the seemingly peaceful mood of the film takes a sharp turn as her father boldly enters a mysterious forest as an assumed shortcut. This car ride up the hill is something that I never gave a second thought to when I was younger, but looking back now, I see that the car ride scene was important for two reasons.
The first reason is that the drive into the forest is a symbolic representation of Chihiro and her family entering the spirit world, as shown by the little stone homes of the town’s guardian spirits by the entrance of the forest
The second reason is that it's the moment that we as an audience are pulled into the world Miyazaki has painted for us. As the music's increasing tempo heightens our emotions, Miyazaki's descriptive art conveys rapid and jerky movement that indicates entering the forest might not have been such a good idea after all. And as a finale, their arrival to what appears to be an abandoned theme park is awe-inspiring for not just the characters, but for us as well.
Instead of putting Chihiro through the same routine that we‘ve all experienced when moving somewhere new, Miyazaki brings both Chihiro and us to a foreign, mystical world of spirits. Despite the spirit world being filled with mythical creatures, Chihiro was able to make real human connections that helped her see all the little things that make life meaningful. This is especially important because while the spirit world may appear to be a fictitious creation of Miyazaki's mind, it's actually a fantasized representation of Japan during the Meiji era. This can be seen quite literally with a lot of the architecture in the spirit world and Japan's Meiji era.
Otherwise known as the Meiji Restoration, the Meiji era was the start of industrialization and globalization in Japan (Szczepanski 2019). Influenced by western culture, Japan began to transition into a more modern society and, as a consequence, lost some of its intrinsic values. Through Chihiro's journey, Miyazaki is able to call out the values lost and to show what it means to reclaim the meaning of life.
Going back to Chihiro's mother at the beginning of the film to where she informed Chihiro about the little stone homes under the tree before entering the forest, we can see that Chihiro’s lack of knowledge and her mother's lack of enthusiasm or regard as she explained that the stone homes were for the local deities shows the general attitude that Miyazaki has observed in Japan for Shintoism-an indigenous religion from Japan. Stemming from creation myths of the world and islands in Japan, objects found in nature were also respected and worshipped. As a result of Japan's modernization, Shintoism was restructured, placing local guardians on the bottom of the hierarchy.
We can also see Miyazaki portray Japan’s overall attitude towards nature when Chihiro’s dad explained how the abandoned theme park was built during the nineties, along with many other theme parks. From this, we now know that the abandoned theme park was once a Shinto shrine. This subtle information shows that Miyazaki is trying to convey how Japan lost its respect for nature and Shintoism, and valued corporate capitalism over traditions.
During Chihiro’s time working in the bathhouse owned by the greedy witch Yubaba, Chihiro encounters a spirit called No-Face. Not knowing its intentions, Chihiro lets No-Face into the bathhouse. This later shows to be a mistake, as No-Face begins to wreak havoc by enticing the workers of the bathhouse with endless gold to then consume them. This particular scene is more than just a direct representation of how Japan was enticed by capitalism and money, as Chihiro’s refusal to take No-Face’s gold shows how Chihiro’s innocence and purity can overcome greed, much like how a child compared to an adult has not yet been corrupted by money. We also see an important note during the scene where No-Face demands for Chihiro and tries his best to offer Chihiro whatever she wants. From food to gold, No-Face is perplexed when Chihiro denies them all. When Chihiro asks No-Face why he won't go home, No-Face comments that he is lonely. This scene represents how in the midst of capitalism and industrialization, Japan lost its way in creating genuine human connections with each other. People became lonely, and families were no longer as tight. In fact, this is an interesting and still relevant factor today, as in 2017, the Japan Times reported that Japan was the second-worst among eight industrialized nations in terms of suicide rate. No-Face is Miyazaki's representation of the effects of industrialization on human beings and their ability to connect with others.
This corruption by money is also shown in the beginning when Chihiro and her parents first arrived at the abandoned theme park. When Chihiro’s parents spotted food, Chihiro questioned them on whether it was okay to eat it because no one was around. She constantly insisted that the owners would get mad at them for eating the food without asking. Chihiro’s father’s response was simply that he has credit cards and cash, implying that money will solve everything, and thus makes him entitled to take whatever he wants. The fact that the food is what turned her parents into pigs also shows that when a person lets gluttony and greed consume them, they begin to turn into something less “human”; in this case, they turned into pigs (Miyazaki 2002). In an almost too graphic of a way, their humanity was lost, as the trap appears to lure humans that have no respect for anything other than money. Yubaba herself even reprimands Chihiro's parents to Chihiro by saying how they were pretentious for gobbling up her guests' (the spirits) food. Now we can see that Chihiro does not turn into a pig because her innocence and purity stopped her from eating any of the food, showing the difference between morals and values in Chihiro's parents and Chihiro.
One interesting reference that Miyazaki makes to the Meiji era of Japan is through the witch Yubaba. From a first glance, one can notice that aside from Yubaba appearing to be of western origin with her blonde hair and overly caricatured western facial features, she is also adorned with western clothing. Taking a deeper look into Yubaba's role in the spirit world, we can see how Yubaba being the owner of the bathhouse is an eery representation of how western influence during the Meiji era led to the emphasis on industrialization and profit in Japan, and basically took over. Out of the whole bathhouse that represents traditional Japanese architecture, Yubaba's office space differs from its western architecture and furniture. Yubaba also owns and treasures jewelry and money, even more so than her own child, as Haku makes a jab at her for not recognizing that her own child had been turned into a rat.
Something that is persistently displayed throughout Spirited Away is the danger of overconsumption. At the beginning of the film, Chihiro's mother makes a materialistic comment, complaining about their new town being in the middle of nowhere and how she will need to go shopping somewhere else. In the middle of the movie, there is a particular scene where Chihiro is given the duty of taking care of a "very stinky" spirit guest. Of course, Chihiro was given the guest because no one else wanted to serve him. However, because of Chihiro's innocence and purity, she was able to purify the stinky spirit from what was harming him: mankind's overconsumption of products and littering. This is seen as Chihiro pulls out a long string of product waste that had been most likely thrown into the river by humans that no longer needed such products. Again, this is another way that Miyazaki shows that western influence brought more than just the downfall of Shintoism and Japan's values, as it also brought materialistic greed and overconsumption. We can see that specifically as well because one of the items that Chihiro pulls out is a bicycle, and bicycles are speculated to have been brought to Japan during its modernization (Ootsu 2000). It is also displayed in Yubaba's child's room. The room is filled to the brim with toys meant for a baby, and as a consequence, her child, Bo, is bratty with an ill temper; a result of being left alone in a room with little to no interaction with others, as Boh expresses to Chihiro.
Lastly, one of the important sociological concepts that seem to get overlooked when watching Spirited Away is class. Probably the most obvious indicator of class that can be seen right off the bat is the type of spirit one is. No-Face is said to be a spirit that is despised (that is, until he starts offering gold), while the stinky spirit that Chihiro served is a highly respected river spirit guardian. It may seem like this is all there is when it comes to class, but really there's more. Yubaba's role as the bathhouse's owner represents how capitalism brings conflict, and how Yubaba is of the owner class, while everyone employed in the bathhouse is the working class. It seems as though the people of the bathhouse are generally happy, but taking a closer look, we see that from the boiler man in the basement to the frog that serves Yubaba, everyone works to survive. They live off the hope that they will be given food by Yubaba for working, and that they will be able to retain their human/physical form if they continue to work under her, as Yubaba's magic is the one holding them together. In other words, the workers of the bathhouse are nothing more than slaves for Yubaba, as even Chihiro is left with no choice but to give up her name to Yubaba and is given a new name, Sen, as well as eventually her memories, in a contract that states that Chihiro will be stuck in the bathhouse forever should she forget her memories.
The ending of Spirited Away ties in all the sociological concepts and beautifully resolves them by showing how pure love and care for one another, and the nature and world around us, can win over greed and capitalism. We see this also in the final scenes of the movie where Chihiro is able to identify that her parents were not among the pigs shown to her. This may seem like a lack of logic, but it represents how sincere love and genuine connections cannot be replaced with materialism and capitalistic greed. It's a stark comparison to when Yubaba's baby, Boh, meets Yubaba's twin sister, Zeniba, and mistakes her for his own mother. Zeniba's subtle comment on how Boh could not tell her apart from his own mother shows how Yubaba's parenting style of drowning her son with toys, along with Boh's sentiment on being lonely, is detrimental to creating relationships. The opposite is also seen when Yubaba is first shown her son, Boh, in the form of a rat. Yubaba's comments that the rat is filthy, with Boh's expression turning sad. Confused, Chihiro questions Yubaba for not recognizing him. The scene seemed unimportant, but it holds a lot of meaning when tied into other scenes of recognizing loved ones no matter the form, as it requires a special level of connection and understanding of life to do so.
We see another show of growth when Chihiro is about to exit the spirit world/theme park. Haku tells her not to look back, to which from a drastic change of character from the beginning, Chihiro boldly moves forward to without breaking her promise to Haku. This shows how Chihiro has gained a new fervor for life, compared to how she was timid and afraid in the beginning. Such fervor could not have come unless Chihiro had been given the chance to experience that social imagination firsthand in an older time period of Japan where she learned the values that were lost over Japan's history.
Chihiro is not the only one who experiences this growth, as Yubaba's child, Boh, also shows maturation in their care for Chihiro, resulting from what Boh says from a fun time with Chihiro as they traveled to Yubaba's twin's sister's cottage home in the forest; a representation of what America was like before it became industrialized, as it cherishes and respects nature and handmade creations. No-Face as well is able to find a home with Zeniba, as she shows him the beauty of knitting, a slow art that requires time and personal effort; a huge contrast to how No-Face was interacting with others in the beginning, simply absorbing the greedy personalities he consumed in his efforts to become friends with Chihiro.
References
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Miyazaki, Hayao. 2002. “Hayao Miyazaki.” Interview by Tom Mes. Midnight Eye, January 7, 2002. Text. http://www.midnighteye.com/interviews/hayao-miyazaki/
Napier, Susan J. "Matter out of Place: Carnival, Containment, and Cultural Recovery in Miyazaki's "Spirited Away"." Journal of Japanese Studies 32, no. 2 (2006): 287-310. Accessed February 18, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/25064646.
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