Art of Princess Mononoke

Princess Mononoke is an animation movie produced by Studio Ghibli and directed by Hayao Miyazaki in 1997. In the late 1970s, Miyazaki drew sketches of a film about a princess living in the woods with a beast, but he began writing the film's plot line and drew the initial storyboards for the film only in August 1994. The movie was mostly hand-drawn, but incorporates some use of computer animation in approximately ten percent of the film. The computer animated parts are designed to blend in and support the traditional cel animation, and are mainly used in images consisting of a mixture of computer generated graphics and traditional drawing. A further 10 minutes uses inked-and-painted, a technique used in all subsequent Studio Ghibli films. Most of the film is colored with traditional paint, based on the color schemes designed by Miyazaki and Michiyo Yasuda. Two titles were originally considered for the film. One, ultimately chosen, has been translated into English as Princess Mononoke. The other title can be translated into English as The Legend of Ashitaka, and it contains an uncommon kanji that represents "a legend passed down from ear to ear without being recorded in official history", according to Miyazaki. Miyazaki had preferred The Legend of Ashitaka as the title while Suzuki himself favoured Princess Mononoke. The story is set in the late Muromachi period of Japan, but it includes fantasy elements. The story follows a young Emishi prince named Ashitaka, and his involvement in a struggle between the gods of a forest and the humans who consume its resources. The term Mononoke is not a name but a Japanese word for supernatural, shape-shifting beings that possess people and cause suffering, disease, or death. The film was a critical and commercial blockbuster, becoming the highest-grossing film in Japan of 1997, and also held Japan's box office record for domestic films until 2001's Spirited Away, another Miyazaki film. It was dubbed into English with a script by Neil Gaiman. The pictures on this page are a collection of artworks created for this movie.


THE STORY

In Muromachi Japan, an Emishi village is attacked by a boar-shaped demon. The last Emishi prince, Ashitaka, kills it before it reaches the village, but it manages to grasp his arm and curse him before its death. The curse grants him some superhuman strength combined with great pain, and will eventually spread through his body and kill him. The villagers discover that the demon was a boar god, corrupted by an iron ball lodged in his body. The village's wise woman tells Ashitaka that he may find a cure in the western lands Nago came from, and that he cannot return to his homeland.

Heading west, Ashitaka meets Jigo, an opportunist posing as a monk, who tells Ashitaka he may find help from the Great Forest Spirit, a deer-like animal god by day and a giant Night Walker by night. Nearby, men herd oxen to their home of Iron Town, led by Lady Eboshi, and repel an attack by a wolf pack led by the wolf goddess Moro. Riding one of the wolves is San, a human girl. A brief melee ensues with Lady Eboshi wounding Moro, and a few men being thrown over the cliff's edge. Down below, Ashitaka encounters Moro, San and the wolves; he asks about the Forest Spirit but is rebuffed. He then manages to rescue two of the men fallen from the cliff and transports them back through the forest, where in the distance he sees for the first time the Great Forest Spirit. As he and the Spirit spot each other his arm reacts violently before the Spirit moves on. Soon after, Ashitaka and the survivors arrive at Iron Town where he's greeted with fascination. Ashitaka learns that Eboshi built the town by clearcutting forests to produce iron, leading to conflicts with Asano, a local daimyō, and a giant boar god named Nago. Iron Town is a refuge for outcasts and lepers employed to manufacture iron and firearms; one of the same that wounded Nago. Eboshi explains that San, Princess Mononoke, was raised by the wolves and resents humankind. She admits she shot Nago, incidentally turning him into the demon that attacked Ashitaka…


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