Spirited Away is a movie that came from the beautiful head of director Hayao Miyazaki.
He takes a lot of inspiration from Japanese folklore.
He doesn’t pull directly, instead he combines different elements to make his worlds and
the characters and monsters that live there.
Let’s go through the interesting bits of folklore spread throughout the movie.
What does Spirited Away mean?
The movie’s title in Japanese is “Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi 千と千尋の神隠し.”
Chihiro is the main character’s name.
Sen is the new name given to her in the movie.
And Kamikakushi is translated as “spirited away.”
So the title means “The Spiriting Away of Sen and Chihiro”
or maybe “The Disappearance of Sen and Chihiro.”
The word kamikakushi literally means abduction by a kami.
A kami is usually translated as a god or a spirit.
In the Shinto worldview, the world is full of kami.
They’re everywhere around us.
They’re in rocks and trees and creatures.
There’s a kami of agriculture that you can pray to.
A river can have a kami.
Even the spirit of a dead person can be a kami.
Basically anything important can be a kami that you can pray to.
Is this channel a kami?
Yes. And you should pray to it.
Before the modern era, there was this idea that children under 7 were not fully of the
human world.
It was like they had one foot in the human world, and one foot in the spirit world.
People thought children were more in tune with the gods.
That’s right, your kid is not talking to his imaginary friend, he’s talking to a god.
This may sound cool, but their closeness to the gods meant that children had a tendency
to be taken away by the gods.
Because the gods had just given them to the world, it was easier for the gods to take
them away.
If a child wandered into the forest and got lost, people wouldn’t say the child was lost,
they would say the child was stolen, as in stolen by the gods
or by supernatural creatures.
Because it’s easier than admitting you’re a bad parent.
This is the meaning of kamikakushi, being spirited away by the gods or by monsters.
Supernatural kidnapping.
But Disney probably rejected that title.
Back in the old days, kids died a lot.
They were just dropping left and right from smallpox or ninjas.
This kamikakushi idea may have been a way to explain their deaths and to cope with it.
Parents thought their kids were not fully human, and were prepared for them to be taken
away at any time.
Entering the Spirit Realm.
The movie starts with Chihiro in the back seat being a little pumpkin.
They pass by these mini shrines on the side of the road called hokora 祠, which are small
shrines dedicated to minor local gods, gods who haven’t gained enough subscribers to
qualify for a check mark, so they only get small shrines.
These shrines are usually put on roadsides or within larger shrines.
Chihiro also sees this stone statue as her crazy dad speeds by and sees another one in
front of a tunnel.
The stone statues are called dōsojin 道祖神, which are gods of borders and roads.
They’re supposed to protect travelers.
These statues are usually put near roads and forest trails,
and also at the borders between villages.
They pass by a torii 鳥居 gate, which you see at the entrance to Shinto shrines.
The tunnel here is important too.
Bridges, tunnels, and crossroads are often seen as the borders between worlds.
Between the hokora, dōsojin, tunnel, and the torii gate, the movie’s telling us that
the family is wandering awfully near the border between the normal world and the spirit world.
Chihiro instinctively feels this and becomes super nervous, probably because she’s a
child and is closer to the gods.
Her parents are oblivious to everything around them, probably because they’re adults in
a kids’ movie.
Sure enough, when they cross through the tunnel, they enter a different world.
The Night Parade of 100 Demons.
When night falls, the lights turn on and the spirits appear.
These spirits don’t have definite shapes.
Miyazaki explains in an interview that kami don’t have definite forms until they inhabit
some object or person.
These spirits could be kami in their natural state, without form.
But kami in their natural state are supposed to be invisible.
You shouldn’t even be able to see them.
Either these spirits have chosen to take on a form, or in this world you can see them.
Chihiro tries to run back to the tunnel, but a river blocks her way.
According to Japanese Buddhist beliefs, the souls of the dead must cross a river to reach
the afterlife.
This river symbolizes again the border between the human world and the spirit world.
Chihiro finds herself disappearing, but she meets Haku, who saves her by telling her to
eat a berry.
Eating food from this world allows you to stay.
Japanese mythology has a story about the creator gods Izanagi and Izanami,
they were brother and sister, and they were married.
Look, the world just started okay?
They didn’t have many romantic options.
Izanagi tried to rescue his sister-wife from the underworld, but Izanami had already eaten
food from there and could not leave unless she begged the gods of the underworld.
The story doesn’t end well, but I already made a video about it.
A boat lands on shore, but they’re not the spirits of the dead.
They’re kami from all over the world who found a Groupon for a relaxing time in some
hot herbal baths.
The spirits marching from the boat to the bathhouse looks like an event in Japanese
folklore called Hyakki Yagyō 百鬼夜行, or the Night Parade of 100 Demons.
On certain nights, a horde of weird, wacky, and terrifying supernatural creatures will
march through the streets, causing a ruckus.
I believe one of their routes goes through New Orleans around February or March.
If you run into this demon parade, you risk getting killed or being spirited away.
But if you don’t wanna have a good time, then you should avoid them.
Let’s take a look at these spirits.
Miyazaki has said that although kami have no form, these kami choose to adopt physical
forms so they can enjoy the bathhouse.
Traditionally, people invited the gods into their bath houses.
Miyazaki uses this idea, creating a bathhouse that caters to gods or spirits.
These guys are called Kasuga-sama 春日様, after the Kasuga Grand Shrine 春日大社.
They wear masks worn by performers of a type of traditional dance called bugaku 舞楽,
which are often held at the Kasuga Shrine.
These spirits look like creatures called namahage 生剥.
They live in the mountains, but come down during the first full moon of each new year.
When they enter a village, they visit each home, saying creepy things like,
“Are there any naughty kids here?”
Namahage like to scare children and women who recently married, so they don’t misbehave.
You know how they can be, those newly married women.
Namahage wear straw capes and carry knives, similar to these spirits in the parade.
These are big chicks.
This guy that looks like a giant radish is Oshira-sama お白様.
That’s the name of a Shinto god of agriculture, the home, silkworms, and horses.
People worship Oshira-sama using these dolls that originated from a story about a girl
who married a horse.
And you thought that god marrying his sister was weird.
The awesome radish look is totally made up for the movie.
Chihiro’s new friend Haku tells her to hold her breath as she crosses the bridge to the
bathhouse, so that the other spirits don’t notice her.
In many Asian cultures, holding your breath is a way to avoid ghosts and spirits.
Holding it too long is a way to become a ghost or spirit.
Breathing means you’re alive, and the spirits may be attracted to your breath.
Or they may become jealous that you’re alive and they’re not, and come after you.
That’s why people hold their breaths when passing by a graveyard.
We find out later that Haku is a river spirit in the shape of a dragon.
He looks like a mizuchi 大虬, which is a water dragon.
It’s also a river god that has powerful magic.
The other mizuchi-like spirit is the stink spirit that turns out to be a river spirit
after taking a bath.
His face looks like a flesh version of okina masks, from Nō theatre.
No-Face.
No-Face is some kind of spirit, it’s not clear what kind.
His mask looks like a mask that performers of Nō 能 theatre use.
Nō theatre started in the 1300s as entertainment for the aristocracy.
They really wanted to keep it only for the elites because they forbade commoners to learn
Nō music and dance.
But after a few hundred years, they were like, “Fine, let the plebs enjoy it too.
We still have our shogunate.
No one’s gonna take away our shogunate.”
Performers can show different expressions using the same mask,
just by tilting their heads up and down.
Check it out, these are the same masks, just at different angles.
They can also take advantage of lighting.
Tilting your head up to catch more light makes the mask look like it’s smiling or laughing.
Tilting your head down to obscure it from the light makes it look sad or mad.
Giant Spider Man Kamaji.
Chihiro sneaks into the basement of the bathhouse and meets the old man Kamaji, who has 6 arms
and 2 legs.
He looks like these creatures called tsuchigumo 土蜘蛛, which are giant spiders.
They can shapeshift into human form to trick you.
There’s an old story where a hero chases after a tsuchigumo that tried to trick him
by turning into a beautiful woman, a classic but predictable trick.
When he finally slashes open the spider’s belly, 1900 skulls spill out, along with a
bunch of “smaller” spiders the size of human children.
Kamaji has these little soot ball assistants.
These adoraballs don’t come from anywhere but director Miyazaki’s head.
Yubaba.
After having some fun with the soot balls, Chihiro goes to the owner of the bathhouse,
Yubaba, for a job interview.
Yubaba looks like a yamauba 山姥, or a mountain hag, or mountain crone.
These creatures live in the mountains and they look like old women.
Some are women who were exiled because they were accused of doing evil deeds.
Some are just old women abandoned in the mountains because their families could not take care
of them.
Over time they morph into supernatural beings with great powers.
Yamauba often live in huts and offer shelter to lucky travelers, but at night, they change
into ugly hag form and eat their guests.
These stories are popular with parents, who often warn children that if they misbehave,
Yamauba will take them away.
Yubaba’s son, Bō 坊, looks similar to the folk hero Kintarō 金太郎.
As a toddler, Kintarō was already jacked, Mama must’ve snuck some steroids into his formula.
He had super strength and could talk to animals.
So The Hulk plus Land Aquaman.
He’s often drawn as a young boy fighting a giant fish.
The legend says that Kintarō was abandoned in the mountains and was raised by a yamauba.
Another version says that a red dragon visited a yamauba in a dream, then the sound of thunder
woke her up, and she realized she was pregnant with Kintarō.
Yubaba’s pet green heads look like tsurube otoshi 釣瓶落とし.
These creatures are literally gigantic heads that live in trees.
They will drop down on unsuspecting travelers to eat them, or just to crush them.
For fun.
You know, because they have a great sense of humor.
Sometimes they like to light themselves on fire and look like a huge fireball.
Then drop on you.
These heads just seem like normal bouncing heads though.
The Power of Words.
There’s a Japanese concept called kotodama 言霊, which is the idea that words have
magical powers.
It’s not a purely Japanese thing, most cultures have some form of this.
When you’re at a Japanese wedding, you can’t say certain words, like words that have to
do with cutting, splitting, or ending.
Once, a hairdresser mentioned to the newlyweds that he was sick of cutting split ends and
wanted to quit, and the couple immediately committed ritual suicide, it was amazing,
so be careful.
True story.
Names have the most power.
Before the modern era, people kept their personal names secret, and used a different name in public.
They thought people could have power over you if they knew your name.
People also changed their names to get rid of any bad luck or shame associated with the
old name.
The power of names is a big theme in the movie.
When our charming heroine Chihiro signs the contract to be Yubaba’s worker,
Yubaba takes her name,
leaving the character 千 chi, which can also be read as sen.
And Sen becomes her new name.
Yubaba owns Chihiro’s name, gaining power over her.
If you didn’t notice.
Chihiro actually makes a mistake when signing.
Her full name is Ogino Chihiro 荻野千尋, but she writes the first character incorrectly.
Maybe she’s young and it’s just a mistake, and that’s the end of it.
Or has she accidentally saved herself?
Because that may be why, at the end, Yubaba is able to release her from the contract.
Yubaba does mention that even she can’t break the rules.
If Chihiro’s real name is not on the contract, then releasing her is not breaking the rules.
I’m just speculating though.
In the movie, your name is your identity.
As Haku warns, forgetting your name means forgetting your past and being stuck in the
spirit world forever.
Luckily, Chihiro remembers her name when she reads it from her friend’s postcard.
Haku’s real name is Nigihayami Kohakunushi 饒速水琥珀主. Yubaba took it long ago,
leaving one character: Haku 珀.
When he finally remembers his name, he also recalls his past.
Ghost Train.
Chihiro takes a ride on the ghost train.
Long ago, the train used to go both ways, but now it only goes one way.
These are just my thoughts because no one knows for sure, but maybe the train takes
the spirits of people who just died into the spirit world.
Long ago, when the train also went the opposite way, spirits may have used it or something
like it to enter the human world.
That’s why people long ago were more in tune with the spirits.
They were a bigger part of people’s lives.
There were even stories of people entering the underworld to bring people back.
In the modern age, the train only travels one way, and that’s why we don’t see as
many gods and spirits in our world as our ancestors did.
Random Thoughts.
Most of the female workers are called slugs, while the male workers are called frogs.
This may be a reference to The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya, an old story where the main
character Jiraiya learns frog magic and his love interest Tsunade learns slug magic.
No it’s not Naruto, it’s an older story that Naruto borrowed from.
Lin, or Rin in Japanese, is the best character because she shares my name, and as you know,
names have power.
The paper dolls that attack Haku are called shikigami 式神.
They say Shinto ritualists can summon spirit servants that they can control, called shikigami.
These servants can look like ghosts or demons, but the most common form is a piece of paper.
After Yubaba releases Chihiro from her contract, she and her parents re-enter the normal world,
and realize that they’ve been away for much longer than a few days.
There’s a trope in Japanese folktales of people being taken to a magical place for
a few days, and coming back to find out that they’ve been away for years.
Like the famous story of Urashima Tarō.
At the end, when Haku tells Chihiro they’ll meet again,
he meant that they will meet again many years from now when Chihiro finally dies
and returns to the spirit world.
*sniff*
Well I think these are the most significant folklore references.
Can you name others that I missed?
I wanna thank the new emperor this week, 泡沫 阿修羅 Utakata Ashura I think.
Thank you so much.
We also have new patrons Kyle Davidson brother of Harley,
Jamie Hunter beware all Jamies,
and Tia Doran long lost member of Duran Duran.
Alright I love you and we will meet again, I promise, in the next video!