Princess Mononoke

Princess Mononoke. Watching it again recently, the story reverberates with me on a psychic level.

Japan, where the film takes place, is a modernized nation that has managed to preserve more forest area relative to total land space than any Western country. Yet, despite this ecological blessing, Japan faces a social struggle to reconnect with its inner spiritual essence and awe for the mysterious. Japan’s animistic past is more recent than other developed nations. The success of Princess Mononoke and the wider rise of manga and anime in Japan suggests a collective longing for the mythological, experiences that once thrived in the country's spiritual traditions.

In Princess Mononoke, we contemplate the transition away from a reverence for the soul of the world. The film paints the promise of renewal through stories that tap into a consciousness that was never entirely forgotten. Our survival depends on this reconnection. Human society, originally intertwined with the aliveness of the natural world, viewed nature as far more than just a set of natural resources. Princess Mononoke creatively tells this part of our story, reminding us that the sacred bond between humanity and nature is not something of the past, but a thread we must reclaim to sew a new relationship with the world.