Tradition vs.

Innovation and
the Creatures in Spirited Away
Emma Hartman, Ball State University

H ayao Miyazaki’s Spirited

Away is the highest grossing
film in the history of Japanese
ABSTRACT
Japan is perhaps best known for creating
cinema (Rekidai Rankingu). It the world-famous film style: anime.
Popular with adults and children alike,
depicts the experience of a young
anime boasts unfamiliar creatures that
girl, Chihiro, when she discovers a are sometimes considered strange or
spirit world and begins to work at disturbing to the Western world. Hayao
a bathhouse where the spirits, or Miyazaki, perhaps the most
kami, go to relax. There are many well-known anime director, screenwriter,
different kami that visit and work and animator, presents such fantastical
creatures in Spirited Away. The creatures
at the bathhouse in addition to
viewers encounter resemble kami,
Chihiro, who appears to be the or spirits, from Japanese folklore.
only human. Certain creatures This paper explores how these spirits
in the film possess monstrous illuminate the tension between tradition
qualities such as grotesque features, and innovation within modern Japanese
supernatural abilities, and potentially society. Traditions are not only preserved
through Spirited Away, but are made
threatening agendas. From a
relevant for Japanese youth, who are
Western perspective, and without often perceived to be slipping away from
an understanding of Japanese Japanese tradition.
tradition, the kami appear to
simply be monsters, secluded from
society, who operate and patronize a bathhouse. Within the context of Japanese
mythology and theology, however, the spirits are much more complex. In truth,
most of the creatures in Spirited Away are not actual kami found within Japanese
religion. However, it is evident that Miyazaki was inspired by real kami when he
created these creatures. The kami that Miyazaki created for Spirited Away help to
illuminate the tension between tradition and innovation within modern Japanese
society. When Miyazaki created these creatures, he enabled traditions not only to
be preserved through film, but to also be made relevant for Japanese youth, who are
often perceived to be slipping away from Japanese tradition.

Digital Literature Review, vol. 4 (2017). Ball State University. All Rights Reserved.
Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to [email protected]. 1
KAMI OVERVIEW
The kami in Spirited Away typically embody an element of the natural
world—such as a radish, spider, or river—and this manner of depicting natural
spirits ties directly to traditional folk beliefs and one of the major Japanese
religions—Shinto. In Shinto, different parts of the natural world are thought to
possess spirits, which exist in a separate plane but can interact with humans. In
the film, the kami also exist in a world separate from humans, but this world is
not completely removed, as humans are prone to sometimes discover the secret
bathhouse and its inhabitants. Traditionally, as they are divine creatures, some
kami can be prayed to for a better harvest, a more plentiful fishing trip, and so
forth. Some, however, solely intend destruction, and in these we can see the
manifestations of more monstrous qualities. Miyazaki has taken the propensity for
destruction in Shinto gods and has applied it to creatures in Spirited Away, such as
No Face, who consumes people and spirits alike, and the paper spirits, or shikigami,
who attack others with their sharp edges.
The intentions of the kami in Spirited Away at first appear ambiguous, as
we do not hear the sentiments of most of the patrons of the business. However,
most of the kami are hostile to Chihiro, who has invaded their realm. Some kami,
such as a frog Chihiro encounters, even mention a wish to eat her. The kami are
not pleased to have Chihiro in the bathhouse at first because, to kami, humans
are the monsters. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, a monster scholar, states in “Monster
Culture (Seven Theses),” “The monster is difference made flesh, come to dwell
among us” (Cohen 7). Ironically, Chihiro and the kami can both be related to this
description of the other as a monster, as both parties are unsettled by the distinct
differences between each other in terms of manners, appearance, and other traits.
Similarly, tradition and innovation provide a stark, observable contrast when they
coexist within a culture. As Cohen states, “the monstrous body is pure culture”
(4). This implies that monsters represent the attitudes of the culture that created
them—in particular, its fears. Kami may function as an embodiment of fear, but
they also embody a complex web of traditions and mythology, with which viewers
may be unfamiliar. When Chihiro invades the bathhouse, which is filled with
creatures based upon Japanese tradition, she represents a dynamic cultural force
and insists that those who already live there accept her. Chihiro’s invasion of an
established society and the kami’s adverse response to her parallel how innovations
can challenge the way things operate, which may also incite society’s fear and
discomfort.
The various creatures Chihiro meets in the bathhouse seem to be influenced
by characters from traditional folk tales, and Spirited Away is “[an] exploration of a

Emma Hartman 2
contemporary Japan that is searching for what might be termed cultural recovery,
or perhaps cultural rehabilitation” (Napier 289). This cultural recovery includes
an emphasis on reestablishing historically important Japanese ideals within
the contemporary world (289). Such ideals, according to Susan Napier, include
moderation versus gluttony, natural versus artificial, and tranquil versus bustling,
among others. However, many of the kami who are supposedly “traditional”
defy such idealistic categories, favoring excessive consumption and boisterous
mannerisms. In addition, their very existence is artificial, as most of the creatures
are not actually found in Japanese mythology but were adapted by Miyazaki’s
modern imagination. In this way, Spirited Away does not completely warn against
modern conduct, but it concedes that Japanese society is much too complex to be
categorized.

CHIHIRO’S PARENTS AS MONSTERS

The first monstrous act in Spirited Away is when Chihiro’s parents, upon
reaching the spirit world, behave gluttonously and are punished by the kami who
live there. Chihiro accidentally stumbles upon this spirit world when her family
gets lost as they are moving to a new home. In this fantastical world, the spirits
take a corporeal form and can interact with and speak to Chihiro, which was
not possible in the “real” world in which she had grown up. In this unfamiliar
world, Chihiro’s parents are enticed by delicious foods and are turned into pigs as
punishment for their gluttony. One of the modern expectations in Japan is to enjoy
things in moderation because resources, especially space, are limited on an island
nation. When Chihiro’s parents are turned into unclean, gluttonous animals after
indulging in the tempting buffet which they stumbled upon, the movie highlights
and emphasizes current acceptable social norms in Japan.
Chihiro’s parents function as monsters in this instance, as they cross an
unstated cultural boundary and steal from those of an established and elevated
society. In “Monster Culture (Seven Theses),” Cohen states, “the monster of
prohibition polices the borders of the possible, interdicting through its grotesque
body some behaviors and actions, envaluing others” (13). Yubaba, the witch who
runs the bathhouse, states later in the film that the food laid out had been made for
the gods to consume. When Chihiro’s parents transform into pigs after eating the
food, it is an obvious warning against selfishness and gluttony, in addition to a lack
of respect of those of a higher status. The kami view Chihiro’s parents as monsters
and treat them as such when the kami turn them into pigs, as they have done
to countless other humans who defied them. After her parents are transformed,
Chihiro’s goal becomes to save her parents and to return them to their original

Emma Hartman 3
human state. Chihiro must redeem her parents’ breaking of tradition by ironically
further challenging the established norms at the bathhouse. To save her parents,
Chihiro must interact with and challenge a variety of kami, the first of whom is
Yubaba.

YUBABA
Yubaba is a commanding witch who evokes fear due to her cannibalistic
tendencies and imposing manner. She is prone to take advantage of those who enter
her bathhouse, and she expresses mercy only when she believes a person might be
of use to her. The first time Chihiro sees Yubaba, the witch is flying around the sky
with the body of a bird attached to her normal human head. Later, she possesses a
giant human body, not unlike the giant baby that she uncharacteristically nurtures
in her living quarters. Dr. Noriko T. Reider, a distinguished Japanese professor
at Miami University, states in her article “Spirited Away: Film of the Fantastic
and Evolving Japanese Folk Symbols,” that Yubaba is often compared to Lewis
Carroll’s Queen of Hearts (11). Yubaba is elderly and rather grotesquely drawn,
and she rules her bathhouse employees using magic. Yubaba also lives at the top of
the bathhouse. As she is the most powerful and important figure at the bathhouse,
her physical situation at the top reflects this superiority, which is important to
distinguish within traditional as well as modern Japanese society.
These characteristics, along with others, prompt Reider to also observe a
similarity between Yubaba and the Japanese mountain witch, yamauba (11). She
states, “to many contemporary Japanese, a yamauba conjures up the image of a
mountain-dwelling hag who devours unsuspecting humans who happen upon
her path . . . . Yamauba are almost always endowed with supernatural powers”
(11). In the film Spirited Away, Yubaba transforms humans into animals (such
as when she turned Chihiro’s parents into pigs), and then she devours them, an
act that resembles the yamauba’s cannibalism. In this way, Yubaba is a modern
reimagination of a traditional folk creature and aids in Miyazaki’s task of making
such folk creatures relevant to a young audience.
Yubaba’s existence also questions a traditional norm in Japanese society—
unquestioned obedience to those of a higher social or political status. Yubaba
utilizes magic to control her employees by causing them to forget their names,
and this is also how she is able to keep Chihiro within her possession. As long as
a guest or employee does not recall his or her name, they must remain in the spirit
world, under Yubaba’s control. This motif of the power of names is not unique to
Japanese culture, and it actually spans the globe through various indigenous cultures
as well as within almost every ethnic group and belief system (A.W.T. and Clodd

Emma Hartman 4
156). Cohen states, “monsters must be examined within the intricate matrix of
relations (social, cultural, and literary-historical) that generate them” (5). Yubaba
emerges from a combination of Japanese witch folklore, common literary motifs,
and the Japanese hierarchical system, among many other aspects. She is prone to
bursting into rage, making sly deals, and manipulating those around her, and thus
she also represents the danger of unquestioned authority.

KAMAJI
Another creature which Chihiro encounters at the bathhouse is Kamaji, a
human-spider hybrid. He is most likely the spirit of a spider, as illustrated in his
eight total appendages. Kamaji is elderly, just like Yubaba, and he works under
her command in the boiler room with the help of animated soot creatures called
susuwatari. Reider suggests the similarity of Kamaji to tsuchigumo, or earth spiders.
She states that “tsuchigumo refers to less-cultivated indigenous people who had lived
before the Heavenly descendents [emperors] claimed [their] authority. Specifically
termed an earth spider, tsuchigumo is an appellation used derogatorily in ancient
Japanese literature for those who defied imperial (central) authority” (15, emphasis
original). Kamaji assumes the lowest status in the bathhouse, and thus he works on
the lowest floor: the boiler room. Kamaji’s low social status in relation to his low
position in the bathhouse reflects the strict Japanese hierarchy. This hierarchical
aspect of Spirited Away was most likely not a conscious decision, but a product of
the culture from whence it was born. It is an aspect of the culture which has not
changed extensively in modern times.

HAKU
Through Chihiro’s main companion, Haku, Miyazaki highlights the tension
between nature and civic advancement. When Chihiro first meets him, Haku
appears to be human, although he can perform spells and enchantments. However,
it is revealed at the conclusion of the film that Haku is indeed the spirit of a certain
river which Chihiro crossed on her way to the bathhouse. Haku alludes to this
when he tells Chihiro that he already knows her name because they met once a
long time ago. Unfortunately, Haku is not able to return to the river to which his
spirit belongs once his true form is restored because, after the passage of time, the
river is no longer there. Reider states, “that Haku’s river has been reclaimed and
he does not have a home to return to leads to Miyazaki’s familiar environmental
theme: Modern technology continues to encroach upon nature, destroying natural
habitats” (17). This occurrence reflects a concern within modern Japan—that
as industry, technology, and population advance, nature tends to diminish. As

Emma Hartman 5
Shinto beliefs express a reverence for the Earth, the trend towards greater cities
and advancement sometimes conflicts with the spiritual reverence and respect for
the natural landscape. As Haku aids the protagonist, Chihiro, the film seems to
naturally admonish his adversary, which is the tendency for humans to destroy
nature.
In addition to symbolizing the struggle between advancement and
environmental preservation, Haku resembles a heavenly deity, Nigihayahi, in
ancient Japanese tales (Reider 16). Nigihayahi betrayed the one to whom he
was supposed to have allegiance in the same way Haku betrayed Yubaba when
he helped Chihiro. Perhaps by tying various characters to traditional Japanese
folk tales, Miyazaki might have been invoking an element of familiarity within
his otherwise abnormal creatures. In “The Uncanny,” Sigmund Freud says, “the
uncanny is that species of the frightening that goes back to what was once well
known and had long been familiar” (124). But, as the German literary scholar
Wolfgang Kayser explains in The Grotesque in Art and Literature, the uncanny occurs
when “‘apparently meaningful things are shown to have no meaning, and familiar
objects begin to look strange’” (qtd. in Hurley 141). This effect plays a large role in
the uncanny nature of Spirited Away, as these traditional folk characters are warped
into completely new characters. When the kami are reimagined, they create an eerie
feeling within a Japanese viewer as they are reminiscent of potentially familiar kami
but are not anything the viewer could have encountered before in a film or within
Japanese mythology. Without any cultural context, the kami still create an uncanny
effect. The creatures each have features which remind the viewer of where they
originate. For instance, the radish kami vaguely looks like a radish, but it is quite
distorted and is combined with human features, such as eyes, arms, and legs. In this
way, the kami are reminiscent of familiar objects but begin to look strange as their
appearance is warped, and they do not behave in the way which we would expect.
When Miyazaki ties his creatures to Japanese folk tales, he presents them
in a fresh way, which keeps viewers interested in traditional Japanese culture.
Professors of anthropology, Richard Handler and Jocelyn Linnekin, state in their
piece, “Tradition, Genuine or Spurious,” “tradition refers to an interpretive process
that embodies both continuity and discontinuity . . . . tradition fails when those
who use it are unable to detach it from the implications of Western common
sense, which presumes that an unchanging core of ideas and customs is always
handed down to us from the past” (14). This means that tradition is not something
static and unchanging but, instead, is interpreted through the time period in
which it is viewed and is thus dynamic. Miyazaki’s creatures embody continuity
and discontinuity because they stem from unchanging belief, but they are unique
creatures in their own right.

Emma Hartman 6
NO FACE
Another creature that combines new and old, and is perhaps the most
famous of all in Spirited Away’s collection of spirits, is No Face. He is described
as a creature who, “like Chihiro, came to the world of the bathhouse from a
different realm”: “He is a pathetic creature who does not have self, and he can only
communicate through the voice of someone he has swallowed” (qtd. in Reider 19).
The audience is led to, at first, pity this slightly fearful creature, but after he eats his
first spirit, feelings become more complicated. No Face appears generous as he gives
Chihiro many special bath tags and offers a frog gold, but he appeals to the greed of
his victims by luring them with gifts before he consumes them. Chihiro is able to
refuse his gifts, and this is why she never is eaten. With the rise of the “salary-man,”
culture, Japan is shifting from valuing moderation, which is a traditional Japanese
virtue, to encouraging consumerism (Gordon 8). No Face provides an obvious
message here that it is commendable to resist greediness in favor of a more noble
goal, which for Chihiro is saving her parents.
Unlike other creatures in Spirited Away, No Face does not specifically
represent any figure in Japanese tradition or folk tales. However, his appearance
was inspired by the Noh mask. Noh is a form of musical theatre in which the main
character wears a mask depicting one unchangeable expression (Rath 25). No Face
likewise shows little expression within the film, but Miyazaki allowed him slight
facial expression, so he seems almost human, but not quite. The mask No Face
wears evokes in viewers an uncanny effect, in which they “doubt as to whether . . .
a lifeless object might perhaps be animate” ( Jentsch qtd. in Freud 135). It is later
revealed in the film that No Face’s mouth is not where it appears to be—on the
mask. In fact, it is lower, larger, and full of sharp teeth. No Face is the only creature
described in the film as a monster, and he frightens the kami in the bathhouse. As a
monster, No Face represents the fear of succumbing to a modern capitalist mindset,
like that ascribed to the salary-man. Chihiro, however, remains unafraid of him and,
eventually, helps him leave the bathhouse, in which his monstrous qualities were
able to manifest. Because Chihiro is able to resist the greed that others experienced
when in the presence of No Face, Chihiro promotes adherence to the Japanese
tradition of favoring family over finances.

CHIHIRO AS A MONSTER
An unexpected monster in Spirited Away is Chihiro herself. In order for her
to gain entry into the bathhouse, Haku casts a spell upon Chihiro to make her
invisible. After she infiltrates the property, her smell pollutes the air, and the kami
can recognize her presence without any visual confirmation of her whereabouts.

Emma Hartman 7
Napier theorizes, “Chihiro herself is initially signified as a polluting alien marked
by her human stench, but gradually she becomes incorporated into the bathhouse
collectivity where she grows in agency and maturity” (290). Before Chihiro
becomes a part of the collectivity, she forces Yubaba to give her a job by repeating
her request until Yubaba can no longer refuse. Mere curiosity leads Chihiro and
her family to the mystical bathhouse, and curiosity causes the family to become
trapped in the liminal town, as they do not leave before sunset. Napier explains
that the world “may be seen as metaphoric of modern Japan, a society that, with
its fading grip on historic tradition and an ambivalent attitude toward the future,
seems to emblemize Victor Turner’s definition of the liminal as being ‘betwixt and
between’” (291). While Napier concludes that Spirited Away attempts to reinforce
local culture in resistance to globalization, I propose that the film attempts to
bridge the divide between tradition and innovation through the liminal spirit world
it portrays.
Not only is the town in Spirited Away liminal, or between two realities, but
so are children (including Chihiro), according to the Japanese author, Yoshiharu
Iijima. In his article, “Folk Culture and the Liminality of Children,” he explains
that, in the past, children were thought to be closer to the gods and the spirit world
and that they “played the part of intermediary between man and gods” (Iijima 41).
Children are liminal, perhaps because they exist in the space between adult and
baby, but, more specifically, they were not believed to be earthly beings until the
age of seven. Therefore, children existed in the plane between the spirit world and
the mortal world, just as the world Chihiro discovers exists between the same two
planes.
We can see Chihiro taking on this liminal role in Spirited Away when she
must save her parents in the spirit world, who are not able to survive there for more
than perhaps an hour. Iijima continues, “[children] were regarded as incomplete
persons. While considered sacred beings different in nature from adults, they were
at the same time looked down upon” (41). This cultural attitude is evidenced by
the often condescending way Chihiro is treated in the bathhouse, but also in the
way that she is able to overcome the challenges of the Spirit World. Iijima also
states that children’s very existence is “freakish” (41). Children, according to Iijima’s
philosophy, appear to be monsters in their own right. While, at the beginning of
the film, Chihiro may be a monster to the inhabitants of the bathhouse, at the
end, the kami cheer when Chihiro correctly guesses which pigs are her parents,
and she is able to return home. Chihiro, while remaining a modern Japanese girl,
represents the ideal blend between respect for traditional kami, the environment,
and family. Religion scholar S. Brent Plate states, “Films do not merely appear on a

Emma Hartman 8
screen; rather, they only exist in any real sense as far as they are watched, becoming
part of the fabric of our lives. Film viewing is thus a social activity that alters our
interactions in the world” (qtd in Thomas 78). Chihiro embodies a role model to
whom young viewers can aspire, and thus she fulfills Miyazaki’s goal to potentially
alter the interactions of young people in the world so that they are more aware of
Japanese traditions.

IZANAGI AND IZANAMI

When Chihiro first enters the spirit world, she begins to disappear, and she
must eat some food from that world in order to remain there. Luckily, Haku comes
to her aid, and provides her with a berry to eat to prevent her from vanishing.
Reider states, “The motif of consuming food from the other world in order to stay
alive in that realm may remind the audience of a famous Japanese mythological
story of Izanagi and Izanami” (5). These two deities are thought to have created
Japan and all of the gods who influence it. In their story, Izanami passes away from
giving birth to a fire deity, and Izanagi goes to the realm she is in to try and retrieve
her. Unfortunately, Izanami has already consumed the food there, so she cannot be
taken out of that world.
The magic that food possesses, which can hold a person in a certain realm,
bridges the gap between the spirit and the temporal world. In order to remain
temporal in a separate realm, Chihiro had to invite a part of that world to
physically join with her body (through the act of eating). While in this instance
Chihiro does not encounter a creature from the new world she has discovered, the
act she must perform in order to stay a part of it brings to mind the mythological
tale of these two important deities. By using this food motif, Miyazaki subtly,
perhaps unintentionally, acknowledges the Japanese creation story and implements
a familiar element into the unfamiliar world Chihiro has discovered. When Chihiro
begins to disappear, it also brings to mind a quote by Miyazaki which reads, “in this
borderless age . . . a man without history or a people that forgot its past will have
no choice but to disappear like a shimmer of light” (qtd in Napier 292). Chihiro
disappears in this very same way at the beginning of the movie. However, after she
encounters kami and develops a sense of self founded upon an understanding of
the workings of the spirit world, she is able to ensure that she will not fade away, as
Miyazaki suggests.

SPIRITED AWAY AND GLOBALIZATION

Miyazaki explains that, within Spirited Away, he hopes to preserve some of

Emma Hartman 9
the Japanese traditions in a world filled with modern technology and materialism
(Reider 8). Miyazaki states, “it is a poor idea to push all the traditional things
into a small folk-culture world. Surrounded by high technology and its flimsy
devices, children are more and more losing their roots” (qtd. in Reider 8). With
this statement, it is evident that Miyazaki crafted the film with the intention of
reestablishing roots amongst young children. Napier suggests that this may be in
opposition to globalization. She states that “one of the casualties of globalization . .
. is the nature of ‘authenticity,’ producing what [Arjun] Appadurai [a social-cultural
anthropologist] calls the possibility of ‘nostalgia without memory’ in which ‘the past
becomes a synchronic warehouse of cultural scenarios’” (289). Spirited Away perhaps
encounters this problem when it references various “authentic” stories, spirits,
and creatures from folklore, which children may have never encountered. Perhaps
the children recognize the reference but see the tales as irrelevant to current
Japanese culture. Napier adds that “more recently, however, an alternative view of
globalization has begun to take form in which local culture is seen as reconstructing
and reaffirming itself in the face of globalization” (289). With this perspective,
Spirited Away may be functioning to reaffirm traditional Japanese culture, and it
may be instilling a sense of nationalism or community within the Japanese children
who view it. Napier concludes that Spirited Away fails at reconstructing a sense of
tradition, but I propose that through a creative, modern interpretation of Japanese
mythology, Miyazaki succeeds at connecting viewers with the traditions which
make Japan so unique.
For the purpose of comparing tradition with modern Japanese society, it
was necessary to establish a dichotomy. However, Handler and Linnekin point
out that “designating any part of culture as old or new, traditional or modern, has
two problematic implications. First, this approach encourages us to see culture and
tradition naturalistically . . . . Second, in this atomistic paradigm we treat culture
and its constituents as entities having an essence apart from our interpretation
of them” (14). This means that, in fact, culture is not static, and traditions are not
simply artifacts which are passed down between generations. When we engage
with a tradition or story from the past, we are interpreting it with a modern lens.
Miyazaki was very aware of this fact in Spirited Away, and he used this to his
advantage to interpret traditional stories in a new and inventive way. By doing
so, Miyazaki combines modernity with tradition and blurs the very lines of the
dichotomy between new and old.

Emma Hartman 10
CONCLUSION
Handler and Linnekin state, “We would argue that tradition resembles less
an artifactual assemblage than a process of thought—an ongoing interpretation of
the past” (15). Miyazaki is doing just this within Spirited Away when he reimagines
classic folktales to engage modern audiences. The creatures in Spirited Away
perform this work in a way that no other element of the movie can because each
creature embodies a different element of Japanese culture or is inspired by a classic
folk tale. In his attempt to connect young people with Japanese traditions, Miyazaki
creates a new Japanese cornerstone, which is arguably the most famous Japanese
movie in history: Spirited Away.

Emma Hartman 11
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