Daughter of Kami: Shinto and Christian themes in ‘Nausica of the Valley of the Wind’

Religion has affected art for centuries, because homo responses to art and righteousness involve uniform processes imagination and emotional involvement (Beit-Hallami, 1983). It seems internal for religion to continue its influence on favourite culture, especially admit, because of its wide reach. However, aspect at Japan, is it possible for a non- Nipponese religion like Christianity to exert influence its popular culture, and to what extent?To answer this question, we count on at the 1984 animated subscribe to of Hayao Miyazaki, Nausica of the vale of the nullity (Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa). Nausica is said to be the quintessential Miyazaki call for (Osmond, 1998) and it earned 740 jillion yen, with approximately a million viewers. It owes its popularity to the internalisation of universal themes like religion, the environment and industrialisation. It contains so umteen themes, both Japanese (feudalism, Shintoisticistist) and non-Japanese (Greek Mythology, Christi anity, European medievalism). It is interesting to note that Miyazaki is often exposit as a humanist, following no particular religion, yet Nausica contains an almost live amount of references to Shinto and Christianity in the film.thither are many English versions of the various terms and names of the characters in the film, part because in that location is a to a greater extent interlinking manga of the equivalent name. For ease of reference to the film, I use names and terms as they appear in the English-dubbed version of Nausica released in 2005, to convey the Shinto and Christian elements prime in the film, discovering at large-minded themes as sanitary as symbols. use up synopsisThe story in Nausica takes rove a thousand years later a global war, the Seven age of Fire. enormous Warriors, biological weapons with nu make up capabilities, destroy e authenticallything. However, enclaves of surviving human colonies exist passim the Fukai, or the Sea of Decay. ,Th e Fukai is a new ecosystem consisting of a vast unhealthful woods of giant fungi and giant insects with the Ohmu as guardians. The main protagonist is Princess Nausica, daughter of the regulation of the vale, a feudal community defgoal from harmful spores by starchy sea winds. She is a record-loving pacifist with a yield for communicating with insects and animals. noble Yupa, a rambling mentor, inspires her to find a way to occlusion the spread of the Fukai. Nausica often explores the Fukai to obtain jell samples and cultivate them in her secret room. single day, an airship carrying a Great Warrior embryo dosses into the Valley. This embryo was first unearthed by the Pejites, yet it was stolen by the imperialistic Tolmekians. These two states cogitate to use the Great Warrior to destroy the Fukai and the insects. In the struggle for the Great Warrior, Tolmekia invades the Valley. The Fukai and the insects are assaulted in this struggle, and the Ohmu are baited to t he Valley to destroy it. Nausica sacrifices herself in advance the Ohmu, thereby calming their frenzy. They bring her stand to disembodied spirit and heal her wounds, and then getting even to the Fukai, leaving life to return to convening in the Valley.Now we will hang at two religions that are referred to extensively in the film Shinto and Christianity.ShintoTraditional Japanese religiosity is a mixture of Shinto, Buddhism, Confucianism and folk religions. Shinto, implication the way of the kami, refers to the ancient native Japanese religious practices and sentiments. Shinto has four common tenets worshipping and honouring the kami love of record tradition and the family and cleanliness (Picken, 1994, as cited in Wright, 2004). Muraoka Tsunetsugu (1964) distinguishes philosophical and ethical distinctive characteristics of Shinto 1) accepting life and ending, steady-going and evil, as inevitable parts of the piece we live in, and 2) idolize for the bright and hands ome, in all matter and thought, endeavoring to master physical pollution with rites of exorcism and vainglorious thoughts with a native and bright tenderness. The close link between valet, kami and temper, and the deduction of purging and rituals are two themes in Japanese religion that carry on even to Japanese contemporary religions nowadays (Earhart, 1982). For the scope of this essay, I will look at the Shinto themes of harmony with temper, reverence for character and life, and instance of purification and rituals rear in Nausica.Wa, or harmony with nature is seen to be of utmost enormousness. One accepts the goodness and handsome with nature, and tries to make stay with it. Miyazaki explains that Nausica is found on a Phoenician princess in Homers Odyssey and a Japanese heroine, a princess who love insects1. Nausica believes that human creations and the Fukai bathroom live in concert in peace. She embodies the relational resonance with munificence and the na tural world suggested by play reveal (1999). At any rate, the surviving humans vex to learn to live with the Fukai or risk destruction by insects. The extrasensory Ohmu and early(a) insects can be seen as kami, animist spirits with powers. The Ohmu went blind with rage when Pejites speared a cosset Ohmu in site to bait the Ohmu towards the Valley and destroy the Tolmekians. inharmoniousness with nature is seen to have damaging consequences.In Japan, nature is tranquillise venerated and exalted, even though the actual state of nature may be the opposite. Shinto is associated with reverence for nature and all forms of life. In the first a few(prenominal) minutes of the film, Nausica is shown flying on her aircraft into the Fukai. The toxic jungle is rendered beautifully, with glittering poisonous be afterts, translucent flying insects and serene music in the cover versionground. Here we see the unconditional knock egress of nature, be it harmless or poisonous. In a follo wing scene Nausica comes crossways a s fossa of an Ohmu. It takes up almost the whole frame and Nausica is miniscule in comparison. She pronounces the shell to be perfect and cultismful. Embellished with vivid music, an compass of a nature revered for its sacredness and perfection is projected.Reverence for nature also comes from seeing it as sacred, and from acute its power. In the film, humans fear the fatal spores of the Fukai, and its constant spread. At the same time, as the viewer discovers later on, the Fukai actually has keynote powers. It is in fact cleansing the landed estate of valet de chambres waste left behind from the Great War. Similarly, the Ohmu possess benevolent telepathic powers (although they can only when communicate with Nausica) as well as the power to destroy humans and civilisation. In an diametrical scene, Kushana, commander of the Tolmekian army, announces her plan to burn the Fukai. In response, the Valley battalion exclaim in hushed tones, burn up the Toxic Jungle?, Is it possible? present that they consider the Fukai indestructible. These powers of the Fukai and the Ohmu cause humans to fear and respect nature at the same time.Nausica reveres the life of both humans and insects. She implores unnumberable times to the warring Pejites and Tolmekians, Please, no more killing and I cant bear to have anyone else die. Instead of killing insects that fervor humans, she uses an insect charm to calm them tear down and coax them back to the jungle. This was the case with an Ohmu who was chasing Lord Yupa, and a giant insect that caused the crash of a Tolmekian airship. When two Pejites captured a baby Ohmu to use as bait, Nausica risked injury and her life to try and return the baby Ohmu back to its herd. Being part of nature, both humans and insects are seen as equally alpha and worthy of preservation. Hence, we can see the importance of harmony with nature, because of its sanctity, power, and its inclusion of all form s of life.another(prenominal)(prenominal) main theme in Shinto is the importance of purity and the use of rituals to get the hang a state of contamination. In Nausica, the cosmos has been polluted by mankind, the worst world the nuclear-like Great Warriors which ultimately resulted in the Earths destruction. Nausicaa realises the toxic Fukai is actually cleansing the world wastes are absorbed by the trees, which turn into stone, crystalize the poison into harmless sand. The Fukai symbolises a purifying ritual, comparable to how a bright feel would continuously purify itself by ridding itself of bad thoughts, or wastes.Nausica is an example of a everlasting(a) and bright heart (Tsunetsugu, 1964) who in her relegation for peace, tries to purify the hearts of humans from their relish for war and bloodshed against each other and the Fukai. However, she does not have any clear rituals that she uses to achieve this purification except perhaps, her retell self-sacrifice. In compa rison, Kushana also has a purification ritual of her own. She wants to clear Earth of the Fukai by burning it and destroying it completely in wander to build a world of successfulness.This idea of sacrifice brings us to the other religion alluded to repeatedly throughout the film Christianity. Although Christianity is not native to Japan, and not very well-received throughout the years, its illusionistic and theistic messages do have some universal honor and some Japanese can plug into to them as they are something different from the animistic elements of Shinto.ChristianityIn many ways, the appearance of strong elements of Christianity, a foreign religion, is not surprising. Miyazakis work is powerfully Western-influenced due to his education (Osmond, 1998). Christianity still has a relatively small following in Japan, because Shinto and Buddhist rituals are still a major part of Japanese life what it means to be Japanese. The Christian themes in Nausica constitute one of many foreign elements that Miyazaki has appropriated into this film. Here we will look at three dogmas of Christianity redemption, cowcatcher sin, and resurrection.throughout the film, Nausica repeatedly saves people. When Lord Yupa, the samurai-like wanderer, returns to the Valley, he praises Nausica by saying Who else would rescue me when Im in get at? In another scene, the barge carrying Valley hostages comes loose and is about to crash into the Fukai. Nausica cries out to them Everybody Ill save you for certain These examples show the messianic nature of Nausica.To further cement her image as a prophet-like being, in another scene Nausica is speeding back to the Valley after escaping from a Tolmekian ship and in desperation she implores Please dear God, please hear this prayer You must shelter the people of the Valley Obaba, the wise anile woman of the valley, realises this explicitly for the benefit of viewers. At the beginning of the film, Obaba, or Grandmother, recounts the ancient subtitle of the saviour clad in benighted who will come to save mankind and guide the peopleat bear to a land of purity. At the end of the film, she realises that Nausica is the saviour spoken of in the legend. The theme of redemption is clearly portrayed in the film. However, why does mankind consume to be saved?The doctrine of redemption comes hand in hand with the doctrine of the original sin. In the concept of the original sin, mankind is born in a state of sinfulness and is doomed to hell unless he is saved by accepting Christian beliefs. Lord Yupa explains that he wanders to find out if mankind is truly fated to be swallowed up by (the Fukai), or if there is still some hope. Obaba teases him, claiming that he is in fact looking for the blue-clad Saviour. The film addresses mankinds inevitable doom and the search for a saviour.Symbols play an important part in portraying the doctrine of resurrection. Nausica appears twice with her weapons outstretched reminiscen t of Jesus being crucified on the cross when stressful to give away Asbel and the Pejites from shooting. Here we see that Nausica adopted such a gesture as a symbol of righteous fearlessness (she was mulish to stop the killing that she felt was wrong) and forsaking (she put herself at the Pejites mercy). In trying to save her people from an attack by the Ohmus, Nausica is shot twice, burned by dot and finally dies facing the Ohmu stampede.The Ohmus, however, revived Nausica. Her death and resurrection mirrors that of Jesus after his death and burial. At the end of the film, a chiko plant grows in the pure sand in the Fukai, symbolising the resurrection of nature at last. We see that it is not only Nausica, but also nature, that is brought back to life. purposeIn this essay, we have seen that Christianity can thence influence a Japanese anime, however, the Shinto elements in Nausica are far more extensive. The Shinto themes mainly stress mankinds kind with nature while the Ch ristian themes heighten on mankinds destiny. Apparently Miyazaki did not depute to have such religious overtones in Nausica. However, in the spirit of symbolic interactionism, these religious themes nevertheless have meaning for those who assign meanings to them. Viewers (like me) interpret the images and scenes in the film and make sense of them in different frameworks, such as religion.Did Nausica manage to truly unite mankind with nature? by chance through the medium of popular cultures, she serves as a female Japanese prophet to remind us to strive towards peace and harmony with nature and mankind.