Enviromentalism

Free Web Hosting Provider - Web Hosting - E-commerce - High Speed Internet - Free Web Page

Enviromentalism
Home Page \| Education \| Social and Class Differences \| Enviromentalism \| Visions of Atomic Energy \| An Emergent Feminism \| Contact Me \| Links

Enviromentalism Japan has long had a tradition of appreciating the natural world that surrounds them. Living with so many people on a chain of rather small islands means that in order for city dwellers to enjoy nature it has to be contained in order to conserve space. Hence, one can look at the way in which Japanese artistry has expressed and reconceived nature in forms of simple brilliance. Nature has been captured in wood-cutting, paintings, haiku poems, and aesthetic gardens. From the early reliance in religion on nature, the natural has pervaded most activities of Japanese life. In visiting temples and shrines in Japan it is not uncommon to see a carefully sculpted rock garden or some small piece of priceless art that renders nature immemorial. However, these small space-preserving representations of nature are not the only outpourings of a country so in tune with the world around them. In anime nature is once again represented in stationary background scenery and moving images of the natural world. Two shows in which nature plays an integral role and in which an environmentalist message is being propagated are Gegege no Kitaro and Mononoke Hime.
	Gegege no Kitarou is an anime show of only thirty minutes in which the main character Kitarou, (a popular image of the anime world born in 1966) is introduced on film. In this mini-movie, Kitarou is a youkai, or a supernatural being kind of like a ghost. The animator of Kitarou is named Sigeru Mizuki and one fan said of him "His youkai world is spooky, fearful and strange, but cheerful also beautiful. Long long time ago, people were living with nature. You can feel it from his illustrations" (http://www.1st-softgarage.co.jp/mizuki/top-e.html). In this movie entitled "The Great Sea Monster," greedy men are looking for a special spring on an island that will grant them immortality. However, other youkai living on the island are annoyed with the greedy Japanese people who keep coming and messing up their island in their search for the spring. Kitarou heads to the island in order to rescue a friend but when he arrives he is turned into a giant green monster, the ancestor of the whales, and the reincarnation of the island youkai's god Zenokuronodon. Kitarou/Zenokuronodon is sent by the island youkai to Japan to destroy the Diet building (similar to our House of Congress). Kitarou's friends try to find a magic herb which will change him back into himself but bulldozers have destroyed all of it in landscaping and building enterprises. Finally however he is returned to his own body and Japan is saved from destruction. At this point, the Japanese admit it was their fault for being so greedy and going after the sacred spring water and from then on they promise to try to live in harmony with the youkai and with nature. The symbolism in this story is readily apparent in the shape Kitarou takes of a large green monster which represents the greed of the Japanese in destroying their own country by tearing up islands and ripping apart their own countryside. In this film, nature is portrayed as being protected by "spirits" or youkai who try to preserve it in its purest form. Humanity is seen as the greedy destroyer of that purity who are punished by the youkai. In the end, as with all happy endings, everybody leaves friends and the viewer is left with a sense of hope that harmony will prevail and they beauty of nature will be preserved.

	In the second film, Mononoke Hime, a similar situation of nature being destroyed by humans is presented. In this movie though, the lines of good and evil are not so clear cut. The message is still that nature must be protected and preserved, but there is an even greater emphasis on the ability of humans to coexist peacefully by building around nature. In a review of the movie by Animerica, an American magazine on Japanese animation, was written: "Mononoke. . .takes a concept long forgotten by modern audiences, that nature is ruled by an intelligent life force, and treats it in a highly realistic fashion. While the visuals convey the contrast between human and animal attitudes towards nature, the moral issues raised by this theme are presented in terms of character. . .The intensity of the emotions and the refusal of the filmmakers to reduce everything to black and white mark this film as a mature work of art which doesn't pander to its audience but asks it to consider both sides in the conflict. (Camp) The idea that not everything is black and white is a complex, adult issue, proving this movie as not really one for children. However even children can understand the ideas behind the approach to nature shown in this film. The movie depicts a long ago time period wherein forest gods walked the earth, spoke, and cared for nature. In this time period a boar was poisoned by a lead bullet and went "mad" or became a cursed god (tataragami). On a rampage the cursed boar god tore through the land and eventually came upon a small village where he was killed by Ashitaka, a prince of the tribe. In defeating the boar though, Ashitaka was wounded and inherited the curse of the god. Wanting to rid himself of the curse, Ashitaka forsakes his village and travels to the West to discover how the boar came to be cursed and how, through his understanding of the cause, he could be cured. He eventually reaches a mining fortress where the people are under attack from the wolf god Moro and her two pups as well as her adopted human daughter, San. The wolves are angry with the miners for cutting down a vast forest and for polluting the natural environment in which they live. In the mining town Ashitaka meets Eboshi-sama (Lady Eboshi), the leader/founder, and discovers that it was she who shot the boar god and caused the curse. Yet, even though Eboshi-sama was the instigator of the destruction of nature, she is not all bad in that she is providing a home for prostitutes and lepers who would otherwise have no where else to go. Minnie Driver who was the dubbed voice of Eboshi-sama in the American release said of her character: "She's not an environmentalist, but she's a humanitarian. She's absolutely bent on creating a world that is safe for these people who've been cast out in the world and in becoming self-sufficient and in not having to rely on the Emperor or the army. But in creating that world she's destroyed something and continues to want to destroy. She doesn't understand how including the forest is actually her responsibility to her people as well, and she learns that at the very end and decides to change. People can learn all sorts of things, but to actually act on what we've learned, that's the difference. (Bond) This view of Eboshi-sama points to the further delineation into shades of gray instead of black and white, good and bad characters. All the characters are trying to preserve something whether it be human life or animal life. In the end of the movie after the Shishigami (supreme forest god) has been shot (again by Eboshi-sama) that is when the human characters, such as Eboshi-sama, begin to realize that they are a part of the cycle of birth and death that nature imposes. They also begin to comprehend that instead of trying to fight against that system they should be working on how to live inside of it. With the death of the Shishigami a new cycle of birth begins in which the mining colony will rebuild with better intentions of preserving the forest and the forest gods come to an understanding that their time as the rulers of the land is coming to an end. And so although part of the magic of the land has been destroyed by man's impact and by industrialization, another part of the forest still survives and makes its own impact on mankind. There is no happy ending, there is only the stark reality of what man does to nature and how that effects man's own course of life. Mononoke Hime is an image of a time when man could have decided differently to live in nature or to destroy nature in a quest to clear a space for himself. The movie presents the two paths which could be taken, one is taken by Ashitaka who decides to stay with the humans, living and working in IronTown (Tataraba). The other way is taken by San who will continue to live in the forest, protecting it as best she can. Miyazaki, Mononoke Hime's creator and director, said of it when it was nearing completion, "I've come to the point where I just can't make a movie without addressing the problem of humanity as part of an ecosystem," (McCarthy 185). This, in a sense, is what environmentalism is all about in these films. By presenting mankind as a part of the system and showing what they are doing to their own environment a message comes across that something has to be done to keep what natural beauty we have left. In Mononoke Hime and Gegege no Kitarou the main theme was a respect for nature in which a future could be made that would allow man and nature to coexist in harmony. Japan's ties to nature through religion (the primitive gods represented in the two films) are showcased in these two films which present to the world at large one way of viewing humanity and the environment as forces which act on one another to create our world. Bond, Jeff. "Neil Gaiman and a High-Quality American Cast Hope to Make Hayao Miyazaki's Masterpiece of Animation Play for Yankee Audiences." http://www.eonmagazine.com/archive/9910/features/big_picture/princess_/default-body.html Camp, Brian. "Princess Mononoke: Running with the wolves as Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke finally storms U.S. shores." http://www.animerica-mag.com/features/mononokreview.html McCarthy, Helen. Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 1999.