ABSTRACT
Hayao Miyazaki’s blockbuster Spirited Away (2001) features ten-year-old Chihiro sojourning in a world of spirits, where she must learn to work hard, exercise courage, and extend compassion to others. The film’s rich mise-en-scène and “cinematography” mark this world as sacred space in multifarious significant ways explored in this chapter, including a particular focus on the aesthetics of ma and kū and their connections to Shinto and Buddhism. The film is structured as a physical journey through a spiritual world made up of “natural” deities, who are, by definition, immanent transcendent beings both very much of this world and yet supernatural. In this way, Miyazaki communicates his key theme of environmental stewardship and the interdependence of humanity and the natural world. In many ways, Chihiro’s odyssey is a pilgrimage, which is explored here via the work of Victor Turner and Richard Pilgrim. Chihiro’s interactions in the spirit world, especially with Yubaba and Zeniba, illustrate that one must transcend binary categories, such as virtuous versus evil, in order to extend grace, forgiveness, gratitude, and respect to others.
