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Who is Ded Kamadzi, Yubaba and other characters from Japanese Miyazaki cartoons, incomprehensible to Western viewers
Who is Ded Kamadzi, Yubaba and other characters from Japanese Miyazaki cartoons, incomprehensible to Western viewers

Video: Who is Ded Kamadzi, Yubaba and other characters from Japanese Miyazaki cartoons, incomprehensible to Western viewers

Video: Who is Ded Kamadzi, Yubaba and other characters from Japanese Miyazaki cartoons, incomprehensible to Western viewers
Video: The Novel & Idealism: George Sand's 'Francois le champi' - Professor Belinda Jack - YouTube 2024, March
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On January 5, 2021, the great master of animation turns 80 years old. Thanks to him, the whole world at the turn of the millennium started talking about Japanese animation and plunged into the world of strange surreal creatures. Western viewers do not understand everything in the jumble of vivid images, explaining the partial "failures" by the author's amazing imagination. However, many of the cartoon characters are not invented by Hayao Miyazaki, but are taken from Japanese mythology. Getting to know their prototypes will help you better understand the strange world of oriental animation.

Yubaba, Baby Bo and His Strange Toys

In Japanese mythology, there is a character very similar to the Slavic Baba Yaga - this is the mountain witch Yamauba. She has the same list of unpleasant qualities: she lives in a hut far in the forest or in the mountains, lures travelers to her and eats them, sometimes after feeding them. Some heroes of the legends deceived Yamauba, since she does not differ with a sharp mind, but the old woman knows herbs, “cooks all kinds of poisons” and can sometimes take on the appearance of a young girl in order to better deceive gullible passers-by. The main prey of the terrible witch is lost or kidnapped children, so the character has been used in folk pedagogy for hundreds of years as a horror story for naughty kids.

Yamauba in the painting by Suushi Yama and Yubaba
Yamauba in the painting by Suushi Yama and Yubaba

However, like our Baba Yaga, in some legends Yamauba acts on the positive side - as an assistant and connoisseur of the other world. So, in one of the dramas for the Japanese theater No, the witch appears as a loving nurse who raised and educated the great hero and sage Kintaro. This "Golden Boy" of Japanese mythology is a bit like Hercules: from childhood he possessed superhuman strength and traveled around the world, performing feats. The image of Kintaro is very popular in modern Japan. The little strong man is usually depicted in a red bib, and it is customary to give such dolls to sons on Boy's Day.

Kintaro doll and baby Bo
Kintaro doll and baby Bo

The incomprehensible green heads galloping around Yubaba's rooms are very surprising and sometimes frightening to the Western viewer. It turns out that there is nothing wrong with them, because these are just Daruma dolls - a variant of Japanese tumblers. Moreover, the legless and armless toy personifies Bodhidharma, one of the patriarchs of Zen Buddhism. According to legend, after nine years of continuous meditation, the great teacher's limbs atrophied, so Daruma also do without them.

Daruma dolls and prancing heads from the movie "Spirited Away"
Daruma dolls and prancing heads from the movie "Spirited Away"

The dolls are painted with bright colors, but their eyes are left without pupils, they are used in the New Year's ritual of making wishes. Having conceived what he wants, the owner of the doll draws one pupil for her, and then keeps the mustachioed tumbler in a place of honor in the house all year. If the desire is fulfilled in a year, Daruma is drawn a second pupil, and if she did a poor job, then the next new year the doll is taken to the temple, burned and a new one is acquired. However, betraying their failure on fire, the Japanese do not punish Daruma, but show their perseverance to the gods: the task will still be completed, but perhaps in a different way.

Daruma - Japanese wish-granting dolls
Daruma - Japanese wish-granting dolls

Interestingly, modern attacks of tolerance have not spared this old Japanese custom either. Today, for the sake of political correctness, the media no longer show images of Darum without pupils, so as not to offend the feelings of visually impaired people (this decision was made after a small scandal staged by human rights activists). The dolls in the cartoon "Spirited Away" have pupils, but their gaze is defocused.

Dangerous paper birds

Paper birds attacking heroes in the movie "Spirited Away"
Paper birds attacking heroes in the movie "Spirited Away"

Probably the prototype of small but dangerous creatures was the hitogata - small sheets of paper in the form of human figures that are used in the Shinto rite of the Great Purification. On such a piece of paper, you can write your name or the name of a loved one and leave it in the temple. During the ritual, the priest throws all the leaves into the river, and with them the water carries away all the diseases and misfortunes of people. Every year thousands of hitogata are sent to temples in Japan from all over the world.

Hitogata - paper leaves that carry away the troubles of a person in the rites of Shintoism
Hitogata - paper leaves that carry away the troubles of a person in the rites of Shintoism

Grandfather Kamadzi - Rebel Spider

Image of Tsuchigumo from a scroll, circa 1700, and a still from the movie "Spirited Away"
Image of Tsuchigumo from a scroll, circa 1700, and a still from the movie "Spirited Away"

Probably Tsuchigumo served as the prototype for the kind, albeit terrible-looking grandfather-stoker. This word in Japan is called one of the types of spider-like demons, youkai, evil mythological creatures. However, in medieval Japan, representatives of indigenous tribes, who until the very last resisted the centralized power, were called "earthen spiders" in the same way. These rebels, according to the civilized subjects of the emperor, did not understand their happiness because of stupidity, so the word Tsuchigumo later became an offensive curse. Thus, grandfather Kamazi combines the spirit of rebellion, constituting opposition to the official authorities, and a spider-like appearance.

Bakeneko - werewolf cat

Cats in many cultures are considered special creatures, but in no mythology their dual nature is manifested as clearly as in Japanese, because in the land of the Setting Sun any cat can become Bakeko. To do this, he just needs to live longer (more than 13 years), grow to a certain size, or have a long tail. The werewolf cat can, according to myths, take the form of its owner and walk on two legs.

Bakeneko of Japanese mythology and the cat bus, invented by Miyazaki
Bakeneko of Japanese mythology and the cat bus, invented by Miyazaki

In Hayao Miyazaki's cartoons, there is a very unusual cat that turns into a bus. This friendly character first appeared in the film "My Neighbor Totoro" and was so liked by the audience that the director later created a separate short animated film "Mei and the Cat-Bus".

Experts from different countries sometimes unsuccessfully try to analyze the secrets of "Japanese Disney" and figure out why Hayao Miyazaki's cartoons are so different from Western ones

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