Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away is a cinematic masterpiece packed with profound themes, stunning visuals, and a deeply layered narrative. However, the most significant foreshadowing lies in a still scene that I found at the start of the film: a crooked torii gate and a small shrine, both tilted and overgrown with plants, standing at the edge between the real world and the spiritual world.
To Western viewers, the scene may seem like a decoration, but it is in fact a powerful emblem of one of the film’s most powerful themes. Let’s see how Miyazaki employs the torii gate and shrine as plot elements and how these relate to the broader themes of Spirited Away to subtly critique the loss of Japan’s religious heritage due to modernization.
The significance of the torii gate and shrine in Spirited Away
A torii gate is an ancient Japanese architectural feature that marks the entrance to a Shinto shrine or other sacred locations like mountains, forests, or even individual rocks. It is considered the entrance to and from the profane world to the spirit world, the gateway and route for the spirits (kami) to journey between the two.
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Though torii gates are generally associated with Shinto, historically they were used in Buddhist temple complexes as well, indicating the syncretic relationship between the two religions prior to the Meiji Restoration.
In the particular scene of Spirited Away, Chihiro and her parents drive through a torii gate to arrive at what looks like an old theme park that is abandoned. The gate leans to one side, the miniature shrine on the trunk of the tree is eroded and overgrown, and, more importantly, no shimenawa (sacred rope utilized in Shinto rituals for purification) encircles the tree.
These visual signals at once suggest that this was a holy place, but one which has been forgotten for a long time and abandoned to ruin. And I feel this is a fantastic foreshadowing by Hayao Miyazaki for the real message of the film: the world today has forgotten about nature and the spirits that inhabit it.
Haku, the river spirit who loses his home through urbanization, and the polluted River Kami which Chihiro later cleanses in the film are both literal manifestations of this. The abandoned shrine and torii are the initial subtle suggestion of the film’s criticism of how industrialization is erasing Japan’s natural and spiritual heritage.
Hayao Miyazaki’s subtle critique of modernization
Studio Ghibli mastermind Hayao Miyazaki is known to be often vocal about his country Japan in its current state. Earlier, in a 1997 theater program interview related to another of his masterpieces Princess Mononoke, Hayao Miyazaki talked about how Japan has lost touch with this profound relationship with nature. He said at the time:
We have lost it. I’m not interested in Japan as a state. But I feel that we have lost our core as the people who live in this island nation. I think that it was the most important root for the people who have been living on this island.
To Ghibli fans like me, Miyazaki’s genius ability to weave deep cultural and historical commentary into his films in such a way feels so organic rather than forced. For Japanese audiences, the imagery of the torii gate and shrine may immediately evoke a sense of nostalgia and loss.
To Western viewers, however, who are not familiar with the religious and historical background, these facts are usually overlooked, but as I have explained knowing these small detailings will provide more depth to the film’s themes of environmentalism, identity, and loss of tradition.
In Spirited Away, Miyazaki reminds us that the spirituality of nature is not an old-time thing: it still persists, waiting to be recognized and revered all over again. So what’s your thought on this hidden message by Hayao Miyazaki? Let me know in the comment section below.
Spirited Away is currently available to watch on Netflix.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
