I first watched Mononoke Hime in seventh grade. I was in Korea at the time and we were supposed to have club activities, I was part of the Japanese club. So our audiovideo learning material was Mononoke Hime. It must have left quite a mark on me because it’s been 25 years since then but I remembered most of the plot points and memorable scenes of the movie. I recall most vividly how violent the movie was.
Yesterday the movie re-opened in Americas in 4K IMAX. Holy fucking shit! Just 4K i think is great and IMAX is no doubt great but BOTH 4K IMAX? Sign me up. My wife actually signed me up and we watched the movie on opening night. I hadn’t seen a theater actually packed for any movie recently but yesterday it was packed! Maybe it’s not that the cinemas are dead but we just don’t have high quality movies anymore.
Watching the movie at 37 years old was a very different experience and I realized this movie was actually a lot more Buddhist than I remember. So today I want to talk about all the Buddhism you can learn from the masterpiece Mononoke Hime.
Ashitaka the Buddha
Our protagonist, Ashitaka, is what we might call a “god tier” character. He’s good looking, fit as hell, can shoot arrows that decapitate people, but is also the gentlest person you’ll ever meet. What I noticed about Ashitaka on the second watch is how much he resembles the Buddha.
The movie starts with him opening the possessed boar god. He is cursed as a result and he must leave town to find the answer to this mystery, and it is at this point he cuts his hair. This resembles how the Buddha renounced the world by cutting off his hair.
Ashitaka understands the void of everything. He gets a necklace from someone he cherished, but he understands that what makes it special is his heart; there is nothing inherently special about the necklace, so when it needs to be used as a weapon he gladly offers it to San. He always looks at the current context and sees how the world needs to unfold given the current context, instead of insisting on his own views.
Ashitaka goes through a lot of trying times but you never see him suffer. He is in physical pain because of the curse, he is in psychological agony because the world keeps wanting to fight itself to the death in front of his eyes. But while he may feel the emotions of pain he never complains, he never blames others, he never regrets his actions. He is already enlightened and does not see anything as a reason for him to suffer.
Ashitaka never lingers. He leaves his home town without hesitation. This is a bit lost in the translation but the villagers use a specific honorific to address him, and it is like the English term “prince”. He is of power and status in his home but he left without lingering, and he found a love interest but is okay with not cohabitating with her. He saved the ironworks villagers, but at the same time he saves the wolf from being crushed by boar bodies; even when villagers initially turn against him, he does not hesitate or give up.
Ashitaka has no fear. Even at the face of death, when he is shot (aptly in the abdomen as well; Buddha also passed from gastric infection); he calmly walks his path. When talking to the wild gods his voice never shakes. In confrontations he asks if the fight must happen, and at the moment the fight needs to he strikes without hesitation. When the sun is about to rise and the deer god’s body is about to fade without reconnecting to the head he does not show desperation or despair, but just focuses on offering the head to the god.
All of these moments allude to how Buddha has lived his life. But what’s more interesting about Ashitaka is, he is not just a Buddha; he also demonstrates many traits of the bodhisattva of Mahayana Buddhism. Which is particularly interesting to me because Japan is of largely Pure Land or Zen faith, rather than “orthodox” Mahayana. So what are Ashitaka’s bodhisattva traits?
Ashitaka the Bodhisattva
Bodhisattvas differ from Buddhas in that Buddhas leave the world of suffering for good. Bodhisattvas, while they understand the mechanics of suffering and happiness, they voluntarily choose to stay in the realm of suffering so that they can save the people who suffer.
This is best demonstrated by a story in the Avatamsaka Sutra, or Flower Garland Sutra. There are four realms, and in each of the realm there are people who want to play in the water. In the first realm, people go out and play in the water but the water can have strong currents or waves. So some people get swept away, and the people despair and blame the cruel world for making these harsh situations.
In the second realm, people are a bit smarter; they understand that there’s a risk of drowning when you go play in the water, so they just opt to not go at all. Yes, there is no water play but there is also no drowning. It’s just a cost to pay for life.
In the third realm, people understand that strong waters can affect safety so they build a giant raft, strong enough to withstand any energy from the waters. They are well prepared for what can happen so they go out and play while being aware of all possibilities.
The three realms above have one thing in common: we can’t drown. In the fourth realm, the people do what they can to not drown but also they learn how to enjoy the waters when they are swept away. They can swim underwater and see what’s there, they can exercise their swimming, or in the worst case they’re happy their body will be consumed by the animals we used to consume for our satiety. There is no concept of bad in the fourth realm.
Many practitioners of Buddhism, including me, we don’t like to accrue any negative karma at all. But Bodhisattvas gladly engage in karma accruing activities because it is for the greater good and if someone has to pay the price of negative karma, they would rather it be them than others. It is what mothers feel in the face of danger when they are embracing their child; they don’t care what happens to them, they need to save their baby (which is why in Korea women followers are addressed as bodhisattvas!).
In the ideal case, Ashitaka would like to not kill. But in dire situations he is not hesitant to kill. What makes Ashitaka a bodhisattva is, he does not shy away from the responsibilities. If he needs to be questioned, he gladly answers. In fact in the opening of the movie when he kills the boar god, the village oracle tells Ashitaka his fate; but he answers that he was willing to take responsibility the moment he drew his bow.
Another trait of the Bodhisattva is that they are the ones who would gladly take initiative while others hesitate. This is what allowed Ashitaka to draw his bow against the boar god, and this is what allowed Ashitaka to have his “unclouded eyes”; he always is willing to dive into the other person’s perspective. He goes into the ironworks to eat with the men to see what their experience is like. Then he goes to hear Eboshi’s side of the story. Then he works at the ironworks to see how the females work. Ashitaka never takes sides because he understands that context is interdependent.
This is especially well depicted in this movie because the more in depth you get with each character, you see that nobody is really singularly bad. Everybody has their own story with their own good traits and bad traits. Eboshi seems like an evil person who shoots animals but she is the only person who takes cares of the lepers in town. The villagers have different perspectives and experiences of the town depending on their gender. The samurai also have reasons to want to strike the ironworks village. Without getting in people’s shoes and experiencing their life, it is impossible to have the unclouded eyes.
These specific traits of Ashitaka are very much in line of how Mahayana thinks of bodhisattvas, and it’s amazing to me that Miyazaki Hayao is not Buddhist at all. But perhaps that is why he was able to develop this character with this much depth; had he been a Japanese Buddhist, Ashitaka would have been a stereotypical Japanese Buddhist character seeking Amitabha Buddha for future salvation, for example.
Mind as Phenomena
In the foundational Mahayana text Awakening of Faith, there is a concept of “Mind as Suchness” and “Mind as Phenomena”. This is the English translation but in Sino-Korean text it literally translates to “Gate of suchness” and “Gate of life and death”.
I remember being super confused at the deer god when I was little. The deer god revived Ashitaka, so shouldn’t the god also revive the wolf god and the boar god? But now I see that the deer god isn’t just a god of life, or god of death. The deer god is a representation of the oneness of life and death. It is the gate of life and death.
This is symbolized in the steps that he takes; whenever he takes a step, things bloom and they die. It completes one cycle. Life and death cannot be separate for as long as you are born you are mortal, and there is no way to separate the two. You cannot die without being born first, and you cannot live without death.
The deer god grants what would have been, and takes what would have passed. It is the agent of the grand order of life AND death. Why the Awakening of Faith talks about the two gates/minds is because many people are stuck on the gate of life and death, but for you to reach your Buddhahood you must enter the gate of suchness where you transcend the idea of life and death.
We celebrate life and we mourn for death. We think death is permanent and that is a sad thing. But we only think that for things we care about; how many ants died today? How many people over the past 50,000 years have died? We are not sad about that at all. If death were to be an inherently sad thing, shouldn’t it always be sad unconditionally?
Life and death matters when you have a myopic view of existence. But from the universe and earth’s perspective, it’s just one breath. Just like how you don’t mourn every ant’s death until now, from the grand perspective all of our life and death is like every ant’s death. It’s like a flower blooming and wilting; it is simply a breath that the world takes. There is nothing to linger over in life or death.
Water sometimes turns into steam, sometimes rains then sometimes freezes. But it always remains. The total mass of the material world has never changed, we just take different forms of it over time. Seeing the world and living in this world is opening the gate of suchness.
Ashitaka, even without his fear or lingering, still wants his curse to be lifted. But it is not for his personal gain; rather, it is so he can be of use with the life that he has. Again this is the path of the bodhisattva, gladly remaining in the realm of life and death if it means he can be of service to the people who have not yet awakened.
All in all this was an excellent 10/10 movie for me. As you can see this movie is rich with Buddhist symbolism which I’m not even sure Miyazaki Hayao intended in the first place; but as a person seeking to be a bodhisattva, it was an inspirational watch in the year 2025. People always seem to want things they’ll find out they didn’t really want. When the forests burn and life wilts away, the villagers all collectively freak out; but isn’t that what they sought by chopping the trees and developing the village? This message still remains relevant today, as we live in a hyperconsuming society that we hope will give us lasting happiness. Spoiler alert: it won’t.