HARMONY AND COURAGE AS PRINCIPLES FOR SURVIVAL essays

HARMONY AND COURAGE AS PRINCIPLES FOR SURVIVAL essays Mononoke Hime is a powerful tale of the struggle between gods and humans. In pursuit of the cause and the cure of his curse, Ashitaka heads west where he is confronted by the bitter battle between the people of Tatara and the guardian-gods of the Forest of the Shishigami, worsened further by the antagonistic presence of the samurais. He is enchanted with the Mononoke Hime, San, a human raised by Moro, the head of the clan of mountain dogs protecting the forest. Given her upbringing, San has grown to hate humans, and has taken it upon herself to war against them for the sake of the forests preservation. Ashitaka later meets Eboshi Gozen, the head of the iron-making village of Tatara. Beloved to her people, composed of social outcasts, Eboshi, for her part, is set out to destroy the forest for the necessary mining activities. In all this, Ashitaka is caught between two factions who are essentially fighting for their respective survival. This dilemma evidently points to a central theme in Japanese religion-ultimately, Japanese life, and that is the close relationship binding gods (kami), humans, and nature to one another (Earhart, 1982, p 7). In contrast to monotheistic religions, the Japanese religion does not rank gods, humans, and nature in a vertical order, but perceive them co-existing in a harmonious relationship. To illustrate this quality of a non-hierarchy, experiences are not exclusive in gods only or in humans only. Case in point, the boar gods Okkotonushi and Naganokami felt immense pain and suffering, causing them to become Tatarigami. In turn, the Japanese believe, every being, including nature, can potentially have kami, in other words, become a god. Harmony is an important element in Japanese life (de Mente, 1994, p 2). It is believed to be rooted in the primitive religion of Japan, Shinto. Anthropologists, de Mente (1994) explained, attributed the need for harmony to the demands of rice cultivation and the ...