











































Tradition vs. Innovation and 
the Creatures in Spirited Away

Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited  
Away is the highest grossing 

film in the history of Japanese 
cinema (Rekidai Rankingu). It 
depicts the experience of a young 
girl, Chihiro, when she discovers a 
spirit world and begins to work at 
a bathhouse where the spirits, or 
kami, go to relax. There are many 
different kami that visit and work 
at the bathhouse in addition to 
Chihiro, who appears to be the 
only human. Certain creatures 
in the film possess monstrous 
qualities such as grotesque features, 
supernatural abilities, and potentially 
threatening agendas. From a 
Western perspective, and without 
an understanding of Japanese 
tradition, the kami appear to 
simply be monsters, secluded from 
society, who operate and patronize a bathhouse. Within the context of Japanese 
mythology and theology, however, the spirits are much more complex. In truth, 
most of the creatures in Spirited Away are not actual kami found within Japanese 
religion. However, it is evident that Miyazaki was inspired by real kami when he 
created these creatures. The kami that Miyazaki created for Spirited Away help to 
illuminate the tension between tradition and innovation within modern Japanese 
society. When Miyazaki created these creatures, he enabled traditions not only to 
be preserved through film, but to also be made relevant for Japanese youth, who are 
often perceived to be slipping away from Japanese tradition.

ABSTRACT
Japan is perhaps best known for creating 
the world-famous film style: anime. 
Popular with adults and children alike, 
anime boasts unfamiliar creatures that 
are sometimes considered strange or 
disturbing to the Western world. Hayao 
Miyazaki, perhaps the most 
well-known anime director, screenwriter, 
and animator, presents such fantastical 
creatures in Spirited Away. The creatures 
viewers encounter resemble kami, 
or spirits, from Japanese folklore. 
This paper explores how these spirits 
illuminate the tension between tradition 
and innovation within modern Japanese 
society. Traditions are not only preserved 
through Spirited Away, but are made 
relevant for Japanese youth, who are 
often perceived to be slipping away from 
Japanese tradition.

Emma Hartman, Ball State University

1Digital Literature Review, vol. 4 (2017).     Ball State University. All Rights Reserved.
Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce critical edition to dlr@bsu.edu.



KAMI OVERVIEW
 The kami in Spirited Away typically embody an element of the natural 
world—such as a radish, spider, or river—and this manner of depicting natural 
spirits ties directly to traditional folk beliefs and one of the major Japanese 
religions—Shinto. In Shinto, different parts of the natural world are thought to 
possess spirits, which exist in a separate plane but can interact with humans. In 
the film, the kami also exist in a world separate from humans, but this world is 
not completely removed, as humans are prone to sometimes discover the secret 
bathhouse and its inhabitants. Traditionally, as they are divine creatures, some 
kami can be prayed to for a better harvest, a more plentiful fishing trip, and so 
forth. Some, however, solely intend destruction, and in these we can see the 
manifestations of more monstrous qualities. Miyazaki has taken the propensity for 
destruction in Shinto gods and has applied it to creatures in Spirited Away, such as 
No Face, who consumes people and spirits alike, and the paper spirits, or shikigami, 
who attack others with their sharp edges.
 The intentions of the kami in Spirited Away at first appear ambiguous, as 
we do not hear the sentiments of most of the patrons of the business. However, 
most of the kami are hostile to Chihiro, who has invaded their realm. Some kami, 
such as a frog Chihiro encounters, even mention a wish to eat her. The kami are 
not pleased to have Chihiro in the bathhouse at first because, to kami, humans 
are the monsters. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, a monster scholar, states in “Monster 
Culture (Seven Theses),” “The monster is difference made flesh, come to dwell 
among us” (Cohen 7). Ironically, Chihiro and the kami can both be related to this 
description of the other as a monster, as both parties are unsettled by the distinct 
differences between each other in terms of manners, appearance, and other traits. 
Similarly, tradition and innovation provide a stark, observable contrast when they 
coexist within a culture. As Cohen states, “the monstrous body is pure culture” 
(4). This implies that monsters represent the attitudes of the culture that created 
them—in particular, its fears. Kami may function as an embodiment of fear, but 
they also embody a complex web of traditions and mythology, with which viewers 
may be unfamiliar. When Chihiro invades the bathhouse, which is filled with 
creatures based upon Japanese tradition, she represents a dynamic cultural force 
and insists that those who already live there accept her. Chihiro’s invasion of an 
established society and the kami’s adverse response to her parallel how innovations 
can challenge the way things operate, which may also incite society’s fear and 
discomfort. 
 The various creatures Chihiro meets in the bathhouse seem to be influenced 
by characters from traditional folk tales, and Spirited Away is “[an] exploration of a 

2Emma Hartman



contemporary Japan that is searching for what might be termed cultural recovery, 
or perhaps cultural rehabilitation” (Napier 289). This cultural recovery includes 
an emphasis on reestablishing historically important Japanese ideals within 
the contemporary world (289). Such ideals, according to Susan Napier, include 
moderation versus gluttony, natural versus artificial, and tranquil versus bustling, 
among others. However, many of the kami who are supposedly “traditional” 
defy such idealistic categories, favoring excessive consumption and boisterous 
mannerisms. In addition, their very existence is artificial, as most of the creatures 
are not actually found in Japanese mythology but were adapted by Miyazaki’s 
modern imagination. In this way, Spirited Away does not completely warn against 
modern conduct, but it concedes that Japanese society is much too complex to be 
categorized.

CHIHIRO’S PARENTS AS MONSTERS
 The first monstrous act in Spirited Away is when Chihiro’s parents, upon 
reaching the spirit world, behave gluttonously and are punished by the kami who 
live there. Chihiro accidentally stumbles upon this spirit world when her family 
gets lost as they are moving to a new home. In this fantastical world, the spirits 
take a corporeal form and can interact with and speak to Chihiro, which was 
not possible in the “real” world in which she had grown up. In this unfamiliar 
world, Chihiro’s parents are enticed by delicious foods and are turned into pigs as 
punishment for their gluttony. One of the modern expectations in Japan is to enjoy 
things in moderation because resources, especially space, are limited on an island 
nation. When Chihiro’s parents are turned into unclean, gluttonous animals after 
indulging in the tempting buffet which they stumbled upon, the movie highlights 
and emphasizes current acceptable social norms in Japan. 
 Chihiro’s parents function as monsters in this instance, as they cross an 
unstated cultural boundary and steal from those of an established and elevated 
society. In “Monster Culture (Seven Theses),” Cohen states, “the monster of 
prohibition polices the borders of the possible, interdicting through its grotesque 
body some behaviors and actions, envaluing others” (13). Yubaba, the witch who 
runs the bathhouse, states later in the film that the food laid out had been made for 
the gods to consume. When Chihiro’s parents transform into pigs after eating the 
food, it is an obvious warning against selfishness and gluttony, in addition to a lack 
of respect of those of a higher status. The kami view Chihiro’s parents as monsters 
and treat them as such when the kami turn them into pigs, as they have done 
to countless other humans who defied them. After her parents are transformed, 
Chihiro’s goal becomes to save her parents and to return them to their original 

3Emma Hartman



human state. Chihiro must redeem her parents’ breaking of tradition by ironically 
further challenging the established norms at the bathhouse. To save her parents, 
Chihiro must interact with and challenge a variety of kami, the first of whom is 
Yubaba.

YUBABA
 Yubaba is a commanding witch who evokes fear due to her cannibalistic 
tendencies and imposing manner. She is prone to take advantage of those who enter 
her bathhouse, and she expresses mercy only when she believes a person might be 
of use to her. The first time Chihiro sees Yubaba, the witch is flying around the sky 
with the body of a bird attached to her normal human head. Later, she possesses a 
giant human body, not unlike the giant baby that she uncharacteristically nurtures 
in her living quarters. Dr. Noriko T. Reider, a distinguished Japanese professor 
at Miami University, states in her article “Spirited Away: Film of the Fantastic 
and Evolving Japanese Folk Symbols,” that Yubaba is often compared to Lewis 
Carroll’s Queen of Hearts (11). Yubaba is elderly and rather grotesquely drawn, 
and she rules her bathhouse employees using magic. Yubaba also lives at the top of 
the bathhouse. As she is the most powerful and important figure at the bathhouse, 
her physical situation at the top reflects this superiority, which is important to 
distinguish within traditional as well as modern Japanese society. 
 These characteristics, along with others, prompt Reider to also observe a 
similarity between Yubaba and the Japanese mountain witch, yamauba (11). She 
states, “to many contemporary Japanese, a yamauba conjures up the image of a 
mountain-dwelling hag who devours unsuspecting humans who happen upon 
her path . . . . Yamauba are almost always endowed with supernatural powers” 
(11). In the film Spirited Away, Yubaba transforms humans into animals (such 
as when she turned Chihiro’s parents into pigs), and then she devours them, an 
act that resembles the yamauba’s cannibalism. In this way, Yubaba is a modern 
reimagination of a traditional folk creature and aids in Miyazaki’s task of making 
such folk creatures relevant to a young audience.
 Yubaba’s existence also questions a traditional norm in Japanese society—
unquestioned obedience to those of a higher social or political status. Yubaba 
utilizes magic to control her employees by causing them to forget their names, 
and this is also how she is able to keep Chihiro within her possession. As long as 
a guest or employee does not recall his or her name, they must remain in the spirit 
world, under Yubaba’s control. This motif of the power of names is not unique to 
Japanese culture, and it actually spans the globe through various indigenous cultures 
as well as within almost every ethnic group and belief system (A.W.T. and Clodd 

4Emma Hartman



156). Cohen states, “monsters must be examined within the intricate matrix of 
relations (social, cultural, and literary-historical) that generate them” (5). Yubaba 
emerges from a combination of Japanese witch folklore, common literary motifs, 
and the Japanese hierarchical system, among many other aspects. She is prone to 
bursting into rage, making sly deals, and manipulating those around her, and thus 
she also represents the danger of unquestioned authority.

KAMAJI
 Another creature which Chihiro encounters at the bathhouse is Kamaji, a 
human-spider hybrid. He is most likely the spirit of a spider, as illustrated in his 
eight total appendages. Kamaji is elderly, just like Yubaba, and he works under 
her command in the boiler room with the help of animated soot creatures called 
susuwatari. Reider suggests the similarity of Kamaji to tsuchigumo, or earth spiders. 
She states that “tsuchigumo refers to less-cultivated indigenous people who had lived 
before the Heavenly descendents [emperors] claimed [their] authority. Specifically 
termed an earth spider, tsuchigumo is an appellation used derogatorily in ancient 
Japanese literature for those who defied imperial (central) authority” (15, emphasis 
original). Kamaji assumes the lowest status in the bathhouse, and thus he works on 
the lowest floor: the boiler room. Kamaji’s low social status in relation to his low 
position in the bathhouse reflects the strict Japanese hierarchy. This hierarchical 
aspect of Spirited Away was most likely not a conscious decision, but a product of 
the culture from whence it was born. It is an aspect of the culture which has not 
changed extensively in modern times. 

HAKU
 Through Chihiro’s main companion, Haku, Miyazaki highlights the tension 
between nature and civic advancement. When Chihiro first meets him, Haku 
appears to be human, although he can perform spells and enchantments. However, 
it is revealed at the conclusion of the film that Haku is indeed the spirit of a certain 
river which Chihiro crossed on her way to the bathhouse. Haku alludes to this 
when he tells Chihiro that he already knows her name because they met once a 
long time ago. Unfortunately, Haku is not able to return to the river to which his 
spirit belongs once his true form is restored because, after the passage of time, the 
river is no longer there. Reider states, “that Haku’s river has been reclaimed and 
he does not have a home to return to leads to Miyazaki’s familiar environmental 
theme: Modern technology continues to encroach upon nature, destroying natural 
habitats” (17). This occurrence reflects a concern within modern Japan—that 
as industry, technology, and population advance, nature tends to diminish. As 

5Emma Hartman



Shinto beliefs express a reverence for the Earth, the trend towards greater cities 
and advancement sometimes conflicts with the spiritual reverence and respect for 
the natural landscape. As Haku aids the protagonist, Chihiro, the film seems to 
naturally admonish his adversary, which is the tendency for humans to destroy 
nature.
 In addition to symbolizing the struggle between advancement and 
environmental preservation, Haku resembles a heavenly deity, Nigihayahi, in 
ancient Japanese tales (Reider 16). Nigihayahi betrayed the one to whom he 
was supposed to have allegiance in the same way Haku betrayed Yubaba when 
he helped Chihiro. Perhaps by tying various characters to traditional Japanese 
folk tales, Miyazaki might have been invoking an element of familiarity within 
his otherwise abnormal creatures. In “The Uncanny,” Sigmund Freud says, “the 
uncanny is that species of the frightening that goes back to what was once well 
known and had long been familiar” (124). But, as the German literary scholar 
Wolfgang Kayser explains in The Grotesque in Art and Literature, the uncanny occurs 
when “‘apparently meaningful things are shown to have no meaning, and familiar 
objects begin to look strange’” (qtd. in Hurley 141). This effect plays a large role in 
the uncanny nature of Spirited Away, as these traditional folk characters are warped 
into completely new characters. When the kami are reimagined, they create an eerie 
feeling within a Japanese viewer as they are reminiscent of potentially familiar kami 
but are not anything the viewer could have encountered before in a film or within 
Japanese mythology. Without any cultural context, the kami still create an uncanny 
effect. The creatures each have features which remind the viewer of where they 
originate. For instance, the radish kami vaguely looks like a radish, but it is quite 
distorted and is combined with human features, such as eyes, arms, and legs. In this 
way, the kami are reminiscent of familiar objects but begin to look strange as their 
appearance is warped, and they do not behave in the way which we would expect. 
 When Miyazaki ties his creatures to Japanese folk tales, he presents them 
in a fresh way, which keeps viewers interested in traditional Japanese culture. 
Professors of anthropology, Richard Handler and Jocelyn Linnekin, state in their 
piece, “Tradition, Genuine or Spurious,” “tradition refers to an interpretive process 
that embodies both continuity and discontinuity . . . . tradition fails when those 
who use it are unable to detach it from the implications of Western common 
sense, which presumes that an unchanging core of ideas and customs is always 
handed down to us from the past” (14). This means that tradition is not something 
static and unchanging but, instead, is interpreted through the time period in 
which it is viewed and is thus dynamic. Miyazaki’s creatures embody continuity 
and discontinuity because they stem from unchanging belief, but they are unique 
creatures in their own right. 

6Emma Hartman



NO FACE
 Another creature that combines new and old, and is perhaps the most 
famous of all in Spirited Away’s collection of spirits, is No Face. He is described 
as a creature who, “like Chihiro, came to the world of the bathhouse from a 
different realm”: “He is a pathetic creature who does not have self, and he can only 
communicate through the voice of someone he has swallowed” (qtd. in Reider 19). 
The audience is led to, at first, pity this slightly fearful creature, but after he eats his 
first spirit, feelings become more complicated. No Face appears generous as he gives 
Chihiro many special bath tags and offers a frog gold, but he appeals to the greed of 
his victims by luring them with gifts before he consumes them. Chihiro is able to 
refuse his gifts, and this is why she never is eaten. With the rise of the “salary-man,” 
culture, Japan is shifting from valuing moderation, which is a traditional Japanese 
virtue, to encouraging consumerism (Gordon 8). No Face provides an obvious 
message here that it is commendable to resist greediness in favor of a more noble 
goal, which for Chihiro is saving her parents.
 Unlike other creatures in Spirited Away, No Face does not specifically 
represent any figure in Japanese tradition or folk tales. However, his appearance 
was inspired by the Noh mask. Noh is a form of musical theatre in which the main 
character wears a mask depicting one unchangeable expression (Rath 25). No Face 
likewise shows little expression within the film, but Miyazaki allowed him slight 
facial expression, so he seems almost human, but not quite. The mask No Face 
wears evokes in viewers an uncanny effect, in which they “doubt as to whether . . . 
a lifeless object might perhaps be animate” ( Jentsch qtd. in Freud 135). It is later 
revealed in the film that No Face’s mouth is not where it appears to be—on the 
mask. In fact, it is lower, larger, and full of sharp teeth. No Face is the only creature 
described in the film as a monster, and he frightens the kami in the bathhouse. As a 
monster, No Face represents the fear of succumbing to a modern capitalist mindset, 
like that ascribed to the salary-man. Chihiro, however, remains unafraid of him and, 
eventually, helps him leave the bathhouse, in which his monstrous qualities were 
able to manifest. Because Chihiro is able to resist the greed that others experienced 
when in the presence of No Face, Chihiro promotes adherence to the Japanese 
tradition of favoring family over finances.

CHIHIRO AS A MONSTER
 An unexpected monster in Spirited Away is Chihiro herself. In order for her 
to gain entry into the bathhouse, Haku casts a spell upon Chihiro to make her 
invisible. After she infiltrates the property, her smell pollutes the air, and the kami 
can recognize her presence without any visual confirmation of her whereabouts. 

7Emma Hartman



Napier theorizes, “Chihiro herself is initially signified as a polluting alien marked 
by her human stench, but gradually she becomes incorporated into the bathhouse 
collectivity where she grows in agency and maturity” (290). Before Chihiro 
becomes a part of the collectivity, she forces Yubaba to give her a job by repeating 
her request until Yubaba can no longer refuse. Mere curiosity leads Chihiro and 
her family to the mystical bathhouse, and curiosity causes the family to become 
trapped in the liminal town, as they do not leave before sunset. Napier explains 
that the world “may be seen as metaphoric of modern Japan, a society that, with 
its fading grip on historic tradition and an ambivalent attitude toward the future, 
seems to emblemize Victor Turner’s definition of the liminal as being ‘betwixt and 
between’” (291). While Napier concludes that Spirited Away attempts to reinforce 
local culture in resistance to globalization, I propose that the film attempts to 
bridge the divide between tradition and innovation through the liminal spirit world 
it portrays.
 Not only is the town in Spirited Away liminal, or between two realities, but 
so are children (including Chihiro), according to the Japanese author, Yoshiharu 
Iijima. In his article, “Folk Culture and the Liminality of Children,” he explains 
that, in the past, children were thought to be closer to the gods and the spirit world 
and that they “played the part of intermediary between man and gods” (Iijima 41). 
Children are liminal, perhaps because they exist in the space between adult and 
baby, but, more specifically, they were not believed to be earthly beings until the 
age of seven. Therefore, children existed in the plane between the spirit world and 
the mortal world, just as the world Chihiro discovers exists between the same two 
planes. 
 We can see Chihiro taking on this liminal role in Spirited Away when she 
must save her parents in the spirit world, who are not able to survive there for more 
than perhaps an hour. Iijima continues, “[children] were regarded as incomplete 
persons. While considered sacred beings different in nature from adults, they were 
at the same time looked down upon” (41). This cultural attitude is evidenced by 
the often condescending way Chihiro is treated in the bathhouse, but also in the 
way that she is able to overcome the challenges of the Spirit World. Iijima also 
states that children’s very existence is “freakish” (41). Children, according to Iijima’s 
philosophy, appear to be monsters in their own right. While, at the beginning of 
the film,  Chihiro may be a monster to the inhabitants of the bathhouse, at the 
end, the kami cheer when Chihiro correctly guesses which pigs are her parents, 
and she is able to return home. Chihiro, while remaining a modern Japanese girl, 
represents the ideal blend between respect for traditional kami, the environment, 
and family. Religion scholar S. Brent Plate states, “Films do not merely appear on a 

8Emma Hartman



screen; rather, they only exist in any real sense as far as they are watched, becoming 
part of the fabric of our lives. Film viewing is thus a social activity that alters our 
interactions in the world” (qtd in Thomas 78). Chihiro embodies a role model to 
whom young viewers can aspire, and thus she fulfills Miyazaki’s goal to potentially 
alter the interactions of young people in the world so that they are more aware of 
Japanese traditions. 

IZANAGI AND IZANAMI
 When Chihiro first enters the spirit world, she begins to disappear, and she 
must eat some food from that world in order to remain there. Luckily, Haku comes 
to her aid, and provides her with a berry to eat to prevent her from vanishing. 
Reider states, “The motif of consuming food from the other world in order to stay 
alive in that realm may remind the audience of a famous Japanese mythological 
story of Izanagi and Izanami” (5). These two deities are thought to have created 
Japan and all of the gods who influence it. In their story, Izanami passes away from 
giving birth to a fire deity, and Izanagi goes to the realm she is in to try and retrieve 
her. Unfortunately, Izanami has already consumed the food there, so she cannot be 
taken out of that world. 
 The magic that food possesses, which can hold a person in a certain realm, 
bridges the gap between the spirit and the temporal world. In order to remain 
temporal in a separate realm, Chihiro had to invite a part of that world to 
physically join with her body (through the act of eating). While in this instance 
Chihiro does not encounter a creature from the new world she has discovered, the 
act she must perform in order to stay a part of it brings to mind the mythological 
tale of these two important deities. By using this food motif, Miyazaki subtly, 
perhaps unintentionally, acknowledges the Japanese creation story and implements 
a familiar element into the unfamiliar world Chihiro has discovered. When Chihiro 
begins to disappear, it also brings to mind a quote by Miyazaki which reads, “in this 
borderless age . . . a man without history or a people that forgot its past will have 
no choice but to disappear like a shimmer of light” (qtd in Napier 292). Chihiro 
disappears in this very same way at the beginning of the movie. However, after she 
encounters kami and develops a sense of self founded upon an understanding of 
the workings of the spirit world, she is able to ensure that she will not fade away, as 
Miyazaki suggests.

SPIRITED AWAY AND GLOBALIZATION
 Miyazaki explains that, within Spirited Away, he hopes to preserve some of 

9Emma Hartman



the Japanese traditions in a world filled with modern technology and materialism 
(Reider 8). Miyazaki states, “it is a poor idea to push all the traditional things 
into a small folk-culture world. Surrounded by high technology and its flimsy 
devices, children are more and more losing their roots” (qtd. in Reider 8). With 
this statement, it is evident that Miyazaki crafted the film with the intention of 
reestablishing roots amongst young children. Napier suggests that this may be in 
opposition to globalization. She states that “one of the casualties of globalization . . 
. is the nature of ‘authenticity,’ producing what [Arjun] Appadurai [a social-cultural 
anthropologist] calls the possibility of ‘nostalgia without memory’ in which ‘the past 
becomes a synchronic warehouse of cultural scenarios’” (289). Spirited Away perhaps 
encounters this problem when it references various “authentic” stories, spirits, 
and creatures from folklore, which children may have never encountered. Perhaps 
the children recognize the reference but see the tales as irrelevant to current 
Japanese culture. Napier adds that “more recently, however, an alternative view of 
globalization has begun to take form in which local culture is seen as reconstructing 
and reaffirming itself in the face of globalization” (289). With this perspective, 
Spirited Away may be functioning to reaffirm traditional Japanese culture, and it 
may be instilling a sense of nationalism or community within the Japanese children 
who view it. Napier concludes that Spirited Away fails at reconstructing a sense of 
tradition, but I propose that through a creative, modern interpretation of Japanese 
mythology, Miyazaki succeeds at connecting viewers with the traditions which 
make Japan so unique.
 For the purpose of comparing tradition with modern Japanese society, it 
was necessary to establish a dichotomy. However, Handler and Linnekin point 
out that “designating any part of culture as old or new, traditional or modern, has 
two problematic implications. First, this approach encourages us to see culture and 
tradition naturalistically . . . . Second, in this atomistic paradigm we treat culture 
and its constituents as entities having an essence apart from our interpretation 
of them” (14). This means that, in fact, culture is not static, and traditions are not 
simply artifacts which are passed down between generations. When we engage 
with a tradition or story from the past, we are interpreting it with a modern lens. 
Miyazaki was very aware of this fact in Spirited Away, and he used this to his 
advantage to interpret traditional stories in a new and inventive way. By doing 
so, Miyazaki combines modernity with tradition and blurs the very lines of the 
dichotomy between new and old.

10Emma Hartman



CONCLUSION
 Handler and Linnekin state, “We would argue that tradition resembles less 
an artifactual assemblage than a process of thought—an ongoing interpretation of 
the past” (15). Miyazaki is doing just this within Spirited Away when he reimagines 
classic folktales to engage modern audiences. The creatures in Spirited Away 
perform this work in a way that no other element of the movie can because each 
creature embodies a different element of Japanese culture or is inspired by a classic 
folk tale. In his attempt to connect young people with Japanese traditions, Miyazaki 
creates a new Japanese cornerstone, which is arguably the most famous Japanese 
movie in history: Spirited Away.

11Emma Hartman



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13Emma Hartman

http://www.jstor.org/stable/25064646
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http:// www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/nr.2007.10.3.73. 

