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The role of the shinto religion in Japanese society today
Shinto religion in japanese society today
Similarities of shintoism and the Japanese
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Spirited Away is a culturally relevant film that reflects Japanese society and the values they find meaningful. In the movie, the spirit world is key. This spirit world is based on the native religion of Japan, Shinto. Shinto observers believe that every part of nature has a spirit. Therefore; there are river gods, mountain gods and even rock gods and these gods or spirits live amongst the people and are a part of their daily lives. Spirited Away gives life to these spirits and makes them an integral part of the movie. This is seen in the first few minutes of the film when the Kami visit Yubaba’s bathhouse. The author, Miyazaki, “talked about how villagers in Japan would call for the local Kami to bathe in their baths.” (1) Kami, in Shinto, “refers to all divine beings of heaven and earth that …show more content…
(2) The shrines in Japan are built to honor the spirits. These shrines are wooden houses where people go to pay respect and pray for good fortune. In Spirited Away there are many shrines that line the road on the way to spirit world. One of these shrines is at the entrance to the bathhouse. The bathhouse is where most of the movie takes place and is cultural significant to the Japanese people. It is in bathhouses that where they believe that people purify themselves and clean themselves to become, “a sound, pure and bright heart/mind, in order to act with a genuine sincerity toward others and the world”. (2) The purifying of oneself is a central theme throughout the film. The character of Chihiro learns this and it is also a reason many of the dirty spirits come to get cleansed. The river spirit, Kawa No Kami comes to the bathhouse covered in sludge, representing the pollution of man. He is cleansed of the pollution and flies away. The spirits that are shown arriving at the bathhouse are also from Japanese folklore. Haku and No Face are both important spirits. Haku, a river dragon helps Chihiro and No Face appears to be evil, but just needs to have his attitude
Analysis: Shinto: The Way Home’s organization is quite useful because it moves in chronological order and it leads the reader in a way that allows for understanding the most unrelatable Ideas of Shintoism. The book uses many Japanese terms and names that may lead confusion for the audience as they have to learn the vocabulary to understand many of the statement Kasulis uses. Kasulis also lack an argument through most of this work and he seems to focus on supplying information as accurately as possible. The author discusses a variety information pertaining to Shintoism making it useful
Whether it is being clean spiritually or physically, water has an enormous impact on being clean. Physically, we, as humans, take showers and/or baths to maintain our cleanliness for our personal hygiene. Ron Rash speaks about being clean when he wrote “a man bathes just to get dirt off him, but it seems more to a woman than that (Rash 116)” and “It was a good, pure feeling to be out in the river on a warm spring day, knowing that come cold weather months later you’d lift quilts up to your chin and smell the washing powders and the damp of the river. But it was more than that. It was knowing something could be clean no matter how soiled and dirty it got (Rash 85).” Analyzing what Ron Rash said in these two parts of the book, he talks about being clean in a more in-depth meaning than just being physically clean. He showed an example of this with the cleaning of the quilts. To Rash, no matter what one’s past has been like or how dirty of a past a person has, you can always become clean. When it comes to being cleaned spiritually, one can say that being saved and attending a baptism would be considered as cleaning someone of one’s sin. “Baptism through immersion into water symbolizes cleansing of hearts and conscience: “Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (Hebrews 10:22)”
There has always been a difference in the way minorities are treated in comparison to the higher class or those of a lighter color. Minorities have a social disadvantage due to the stereotypical image portrayed by the handful of criminals within their group. In the movie, Fruitvale Station directed by Ryan Coogler, Oscar Grant, a twenty-two-year-old black man living in San Francisco, is shot and killed during his arrest at Fruitvale train station. Although the incident occurred in 2009 and the movie was released in 2013, it exemplifies the current social and political injustice against minorities.
How Cinematic Identification is Used to Position the Spectator in Relation to Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Far From Heaven
The 2009 film “Precious”, based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire, tells the tragic story of sixteen-year-old Claireece Precious Jones; an overweight, illiterate who is now pregnant with her second child. Her life at home is a complete nightmare; her mother, Mary, verbally, emotionally and physically abuses her daily. Her father, Carl, molested her on multiple occasions and impregnated her twice then disappeared. Precious was kicked out of public school and took an offer to attend an alternative school where she meets her inspirational teacher Miss Blu Rain. Precious begins to believe in herself and prepares herself for her future. She becomes engaged in class and learns how to read and write; she was called stupid and dummy all her life and
Human beings are fascinated by heroes. Joseph Campbell believes that throughout history heroes have followed a hero’s journey model or monomyth. This means that there are common patterns that can be found in many hero stories. Time after time, people have read about heroes leaving the ordinary world to complete the quest that will change mankind and better the hero. While many tasks and challenges may lie in the hero’s way they always return victorious. The Hero serves a dual purpose. Heroes are smart, brave and resilient. They show the world what is possible through hard work and perseverance. Heroes also reflect the fears and limitations that people are faced with. Heros inspires people to be the best versions of themselves. Chihiro the main character in Hayao Miyazaki’s film Spiri
Miyazaki’s strong support for Japanese culture often becomes prominent in the film. Once chihiro has learned that her parents are pigs, she believes that she is dreaming. “Go away. Go away. Disappear…” she tells herself, only to find that she is literally disappearing. This is because she has not yet eaten food from the realm she is in. Here she meets Haku, a young apprentice of the bathhouse. He feeds her food, and she begins to reappear. This scene reflects old Japanese mythological stories that hold the belief that eating food from another realm will keep you ...
Whether it is being clean spiritually or physically, water has an enormous impact in being clean. Physically, we, as humans, take showers and/or baths to maintain our cleanliness for our personal hygiene. Ron Rash speaks about being clean when he wrote “a man bathes just to get dirt off him but it seems more to a woman than that (Rash 116)” and “It was a good, pure feeling to be out in the river on a warm spring day, knowing that come cold weather months later you’d lift quilts up to your chin and smell the washing powders and the damp of the river. But it was more than that. It was knowing something could be clean no matter how soiled and dirty it got (Rash 85).” Analyzing what Ron Rash said in these two parts of the book, he talks about being clean in a more in-depth meaning than just being physically clean. He showed an example of this with the cleaning of the quilts. To Rash, no matter what one’s past has been like or how dirty of a past a person has, you can always become clean. When it comes to being cleaned spiritually, one can say that being saved and attending baptism would be considered as cleaning someone of one’s sin. “Baptism through immersion into water symbolizes cleansing of hearts and conscience: “Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (Hebrews 10:22)”
There are many regions that entail the belief of a spirit transcending into a place of serenity. One religion that focuses on transcending is Shintoism. Shintoism is a religion of Japanese origin that devotes its belief in spirits of natural forces. This is expressed by the meaning of Shinto, which means “the way of Kami.” A kami is a divine being or spirit in the religion such as the Emperor who was believed to be a sun goddess. In the movie, Spirited Away, Shintoism is expressed by Chihiro finds purity through the use of liminal process. Liminal Process are the steps needed to allow an individual to pass the threshold of the Earthly world to the Spiritual realm. These steps are similar to the way an alcoholic would reach sobriety.
The film Gran Torino directed by Client Eastwood challenges The issues of stereotypes through the attributes of contemporary assumptions of status, gender and ethnicity. Exploring the themes of absence of a male dominate figure, enabling protagonist Theo to be a feminine figure exploits the idea of gender portrays the Hmong men to be stereotyped.Ethnicity and status also express multiple meanings through the cinematography and the Hollywood narrative style illustrates many representation of the western and eastern cultures These key terms gender, ethnicity and status all intertwine with each other during the entire film. The Hmong culture have been stereotyped by the western culture concerning that the American way is the only way which evidently challenges the ideas and ideologies of the Hmong society. the film illustrates the idea of realism but underlines the factor that cultures outside of America should obtain the manners and ideas of an American to survive in society. there is clear indication that classical Hollywood narrative, mis en scene and cinematography style can support stereotypes about gender, ethnicity and status.
Shinto followers believe that the waterfall is the home of the mountain kami spirits, or gods. Many also believe that the Nachi Waterfall is the central part of all supernatural power and kami in the Kumano Mountain. Near the base of the water, the Kumano Nachi Grand shrine was built in order to worship the local kami. Ancient legends of Shinto also describe how kami from all over Japan would come to the Nachi Waterfall to purify themsleves every year.
The biological differences that set apart the male and female gender throughout any culture remain eminent. Men are perceived as the stronger and dominant gender; women play the role of the weaker. In each culture the expectation of the manner in which men and women behave are influenced by the ideals and customs of that culture. In most predominant cultures, the man undertakes the role as a leader, and the woman devotes her life to the husband. Throughout history, traditions and literature provide a template to the identities of various cultures. Sleeping Beauty’s classic tale of a beautiful princess takes a central precept that previous patriarchal archetypes dominated during the 17th Century. The archetypal perceptions of women resulted from conscious and unconscious literature influenced by male-dominated perspectives and social standards.
Feminist theory was derived from the social movement of feminism where political women fight for the right of females in general and argue in depth about the unequality we face today. In the aspect of cinema, feminists notice the fictitious representations of females and also, machismo. In 1974, a book written by Molly Haskell "From Reverence to Rape: The treatment of Women in Movies" argues about how women almost always play only passive roles while men are always awarded with active, heroic roles. Moreover, how women are portrayed in movies are very important as it plays a big role to the audience on how to look at a woman and how to treat her in real life due to the illusionism that cinema offers. These images of women created in the cinema shapes what an ideal woman is. This can be further explained through an article 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' written by a feminist named Laura Mulvey in 1975. She uses psychoanalysis theories by Sigmund Freud to analyze 'Scopophilia' which is the desire to see. This explains how the audience is hooked to the screen when a sexy woman is present. In a bigger picture, where Scopophilia derives from, 'Voyeurism' is also known as feeling visual pleasure when looking at another. Narcissism on the other hand means identifying one's self with the role played. It is not hard to notice that in classical cinema, men often play the active role while the women are always the object of desire for the male leads, displayed as a sexual object and frequently the damsels in distress. Therefore, the obvious imbalance of power in classical cinema shows how men are accountable to moving the narratives along. Subconsciously, narcissism occurs in the audience as they ...
In society today, there is pressure from all sides to conform to a certain ideal of beauty. People are overwhelmed with the different types of images and media forms that are telling people how to act and what to look like. Media is one of the most powerful tools at our disposal. It has the power to educate, affect social change, and much more, but if taken incorrectly people will take drastic lengths to change something about themselves. There have been many attempts to empower women through different types of media, but many have failed miserably. Over the last couple of years, Disney has struggled greatly with the representation of women throughout Princess movies because young girls are hounded with images of princesses,
“Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.” According to Buddha, everyone needs some form of spirituality to define his or her life and existence. Webster Dictionary defines spiritualism as “a system of beliefs or religious practices based on supposed communication with the spirits of the dead, often times through mediums.” Though this is one general definition of spiritualism, this concept is one that does not hold a conclusive meaning. Each and every single person has the ability and right to create and practice their own idea of spiritualism. From ancient times to present day, the term and practice of spirituality has transformed, particularly from region to region. Despite the discrepancies in practices and overall understanding of this idea, spirituality has had an effect and impact upon all of humanity since the creation of time. This religion that is believed to have been established in the early eighteen hundreds, after two little girls claimed to have the ability to talk to spirits, sparked interest in this spiritual movement, allowing it to spread rather rapidly over many geographical locations. Aside from being recognized as a religion, spiritualism is also believed to be a form of philosophy and a science in which spiritualists believe that there is life after death and try to demonstrate this through the ability of attempting to communicate with those that have passed on. Spiritualism was socially different from other religions in existence at the time because it presented followers with a more tolerant belief system that assimilated the principles and facts from a selection the world's religions. Spiritualism also made it acceptable for women to play a disti...