The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya: Peer Pressure From Departed Souls

We all face pressure to be something other than what we are. From society that expects us to conform for a multitude of reasons. Morality, decency, productivity, to contribute to the great human cause while also maintaining a prescribed “decorum” as years of conditioning and expectation dictate we should under the guise of “human nature.” From our family concerned of the reputation and pressures of living up to their name, the ideals they feel we should be emulating, and the life they imagined we would have when they decided to welcome us into the world, that we owe them for that. And from within ourselves that we internalize from all these different places and reasons. Those most introspective seize these ideas and make the conscious decision to not impart these upon those they meet in the future. Small, inconsequential, but unimaginably powerful of a choice that not all of us get to make, whether we want to or not.

The Tale Of The Princess Kaguya, was directed by the late, great Isao Takahata for Studio Ghibli, the legendary Japanese animation studio needs no introduction. Based on the 9th or 10th century (no one knows for sure the exact time period in which this story was originally told) "Tale Of The Bamboo Cutter" which, is considered the oldest surviving work in the "monogatari" storytelling form. Think of it as comparable to what we would know as the epic novel. It is a story that has stood the test of time throughout Japanese folklore.

A tiny girl is found in a shining bamboo stalk by a bamboo cutter and his wife. The girl goes through a rapid aging and growth process into an exquisite young lady. The bamboo cutter dreams of a lavish life for this still relatively new family. Moving to the imperial palace, believing the young girl to be worthy of such an honor as that of a princess. Princess Kaguya. As she grows up and learns the ways of royalty she confronts the expectations of the palace and comes to grapple and struggle with a life she did not ever ask for.

It’s art style is a timeless and stunningly beautiful faded water color aesthetic. Lending a feel of ancient splendor and distant past, like a cloudy memory of an opulent, turbulent, and meaningful youth. Doing wonders for the emotional direction and tone, mesmerizingly realized by Studio Ghibli’s world class artists and animators. Paired brilliantly with Joe Hisaishi’s sweeping, moving composition that is even more effective when it pulls itself back to reveal and intimate, painful inside beneath a veneer of grandeur.

The characterization of Kaguya herself is remarkably well-realized, not just in her believable reactions to the responsibilities thrust upon her, the life she never chose to live, and the people she is forced to be around, but in relation to that of a young woman in the ancient world. She dreams in vivid detail both tangibly to the viewer and through her behaviors of a self-determination kept from her. From her adoptive father, from the royalty she was forced to be a part of, and the society that expects submission and a smile with a bowed head and endless gratitude for her position. It is symbolic, metaphorical in its imagery. There is tragedy in both privilege and poverty portrayed in a way that gives respect to both struggles without assigning value judgment to one or the other. And it is through Kaguya’s exposure to both that we learn that both can be tragic in different ways.

The sense of place given to the rural environments of the Heian gives a staggering sense of life, convincing us that this world would continue on without our input, even after the credits have rolled. The muted greens of the countryside and softness that creates is a picture of the smallness of life. That while it may not be much, it is enough as it is for those who do not lust for more, even if the quality of life is further diminished, the independence can be cherished by those who need and/or want it. By contrast the sharper intensity of the capital and palace give a feeling of aristocracy, harsher rules, higher expectation, and deeper judgment. A feeling of stability, safety but only for those who could be considered “worthy” of it. A far more discerning society than that of the impoverished, but more well fed, looked after, and physically healthy. 

My personal interpretations of this work are that it is trying to say you can’t force your idea of happiness onto someone else expecting them to feel the same way, and that the most opulent lifestyles often restrict what being human is all about. The most humble and understated of lives bring out the best in our species. Let's let people be people, and try not to force them into what we want them to be, because at that point are they really even themselves if they were never really given a chance to be? There are less rules than you think. And such codes of conduct can be more suffocating than they are worth with such arbitrary and draconian application out of no reason other than the appraisal and appeasement of nihilistic goals.

It is a beautifully realized piece that will ask of you to cherish every waking moment you have left, the good, the bad, the mundane, and everything else in between. Coming from a man mere years away from his eventual passing I believe that it means more. I believe at a time like this, where we are all waiting for better, healthier, and safer days to come, we can confide in a work such as this. An ethereal and absolutely visually stunning piece that is as beautiful on the surface as it is beneath it's watercolor art style. In a self-indulgent modern world, where inequality of outcomes and wealth is rampant, we can take solace in what we have that they do not. That our souls are intact and we are more than our circumstances and our monetary value.