ensky Spirited Away Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi Nosechara Assorted mini figure set

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Chihiro is the name of the main character, a 10-year-old girl. Miyazaki said that girls of that age are tough these days, which is why he chose one as the heroine. She is the daughter of middle-class parents, as is apparent from the four-wheel-drive Audi they own, the upscale brand of the supermarket bag inside, and the relatively young age at which they have been able to buy a detached house in the suburbs. The couple and their daughter Chihiro are selfish, ill-mannered, and devoted to their desires. They are typical of the Japanese people of the time, who ignored the country’s traditional, spiritual culture to sing the praises of economic prosperity. It is worth noting that generally these kami are not at all of high status. While one polluted river spirit cleansed by Chihiro is apparently quite important, others are quite ordinary, despite being gods, and most travel in groups.

The character No-Face (Kaonashi) has no voice of his own, instead, using the voices of those he swallows. The lower half of his body is also semitransparent. These aspects may symbolize that he has no real self. Chihiro (千尋) becomes Sen (千) when Yubaba, who runs the bathhouse in the story, takes one character of her name and gains control over the girl. In one well-known example, the Buddhist monk Kūkai (774–835) stated: “Composed of the five elements of earth, water, fire, wind, and space, all things in creation contain echoes of the truth. . . . Dainichi Nyorai, the supreme Buddha, is the image of the world as it is.” A close look at the old cedar shows that it is broken at the top. These kinds of old trees are often found at shrines in Japan, such as Kamigamo Shrine in Kyoto and Kasuga Taisha in Nara. They are revered, due to being seen as locations where kami descended from the heavens in the form of lightning. This divine connection makes these trees sacred. The iconic Pixar lamp could have also inspired the hopping lantern as they both act in similar ways. As Spirited Away takes a lot of inspiration from yokai and kami, it is more likely that this is a tsukumogami.

Key Themes

When Chihiro was a child, she once fell into the Kohaku river but was safely washed ashore. This is why she and Haku have such a close connection. The tsuchigumo are a type of yokai from Japanese folklore. They are also known by several other names such as yatsukahagi or ogumo. They appear in artworks as giant, spider-like monsters but their appearance in Spirited Away is very different. Kasuga-sama are a type of yokai which make a brief appearance on the boat that approaches the bathhouse in the beginning of the movie. At first, they are invisible and you can only see the paper masks they wear. Singer Matsutōya Yumi expressed the same idea in simpler terms in her song “Yasashisa ni tsutsumareta nara” (Embraced by Tenderness): “If I open the curtain, and I’m embraced by the tenderness of the calm sunbeams through the trees, everything I see is surely a message.”

The original Japanese name for the film is Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi, which might be translated literally as “The Spiriting Away of Sen and Chihiro.” But why this title? In Japanese folklore, Mizuchi are water dragons and are loosely linked to water deities. In Spirited Away, the Mizuchi serves as part of the inspiration behind the character of Haku.

Wrong Roads

In truth, the Oshira-Sama we see in Spirited Away more closely resembles the dolls linked to it rather than the spirit itself. Despite this, the original Japanese version of Spirited Away refers to the spirit as Oshira-Sama. Japan is said to have myriad gods, or literally 8 million, and so Shintō is entirely different from monotheistic religions. In Spirited Away, there are gods everywhere. Kintaro is less of a Japanese yokai and more of a figure in folklore tales, but he still makes an appearance in Spirited Away. In Japanese folklore, Kintaro is a superhuman child raised by a yama-uba.

There’s a lot of debate around the meaning of No-Face and its inspiration but many believe that it is a type of yokai known as the Noppera-Bo. Yokai and kami play important roles in the story of Spirited Away. They are integral to the plot as Chichiro ends up in their world. The Story of Yanagawa's Canals (1987) • Miyazaki and Kurosawa Fireside Chat (1993) • Ghibli Was Born This Way: A Birth Story Spelled Out With Reproduced Images (1998) • World Journey of My Memory / Journey of the Heart (1998) • How Princess Mononoke Was Born (2001) • Lasseter-San, Arigato! (2003) • Hayao Miyazaki Produces a CD (2004) • Yasuo Otsuka's Joy of Motion (2004) • Hayao Miyazaki and the Ghibli Museum (2005) • Ghibli: The Miyazaki Temple (2005) • The Work of Toshio Suzuki (2006) • Scenery of Ghibli (2006) • A Ghibli Artisan – Kazuo Oga Exhibition – The Man Who Painted Totoro's Forest (2007) • How Ponyo Was Born (2009) • Poppy Hill - 300 Days of War Between Father and Son (2011) • Ghibli's Bookshelf (2011) • The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness (2013) • Until The End of The Creation of When Marnie Was There (2015) • Never-Ending Man: Hayao Miyazaki (2016) • NHK Image File: I Want To Meet This Person - Isao Takahata, Animation Film Director (2018) • 10 Years with Hayao Miyazaki (2019)

Why buy your Spirited Away Figures from us ?

This Japanese deity makes a brief appearance in Spirited Away. Although, American audiences will know this spirit as the Radish Spirit. It is a visitor at the bathhouse and is a tall, large, and very pale creature. This is one example showing that trees have been revered for their divine nature. When Buddhism spread to Japan from continental Asia, the first statues of the Buddha were made from camphor trees, which were considered the most sacred of trees. The term shinboku is used for trees venerated as divine. In Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro, the titular creature lives in a camphor tree, and may possibly be its spirit.