Love and Dreams in the Animation World of Hayao Miyazaki

I saw in a library a Chinese book about Hayao Miyazaki. Rather than focusing on the animator's work, it focuses on his life instead in the format of biography. I think some of you may be interested in Miyazaki's early life, so I am planning to translate a few pages every day.

(I'd also like to use this as an opportunity to improve my written English, so please do not hesitate to point out my grammatical mistakes or make any suggestions for improvment)

Love and Dreams in the Animation World of Hayao Miyazaki
宮崎駿 : 動畫世界的愛與夢


Foreword


Talking about Hayao Miyazaki, many children and adults should be very familiar with his animated movies. We also started to learn what "animation" is from his works.

Miyazaki, at his young age, was also attracted by the animation on TV or in theatres. Moreover, he has a keen interest on the stories for children. It was the cumulative effort of various factors that created today's master of animation - Hayao Miyazaki.

In the stories created by Miyazaki, many of the plots are intimately related to the animator's own life experience, such as the wartime in his childhood, the illness of his mother, the discontent to the contemporary society, etc. What he concerns most is to preserve a plot of land of the utmost cleanliness and freedom, which can allow children to fly lightly with his own imagination in his animated works.
This is Miyazaki. He does not think that including themes of environmental concern and anti-war would mean that he was a "priest of environmentalism" or a "priest of anti-war."

When he was being interviewed, he sincerely said, "I do not want to solve the problems of the world. I would only like to convey the message that even though there is hatred, bloodshed and violence, good and nice things still exist.
He is such a humble animation director who feels he has been doing nothing more than telling a simple story, Nevertheless, for all who had watched his works; they could not help but have their mouth wide open, and say, "it's so amazing!"

Now, please stretch your imagination, and fly joyfully in the stories of Miyazaki.




1. The boy who loved drawing


The dream of being a pilot

Not far away from little Hayao were a few papers with the drawings of aircraft and combat-fighters. There were also drawings of a few large warships. He held up a drawing of an aircraft. The elegant wings had occupied over half of the sheet. Gazing at his masterpieces, Hayao was very happy. Every single aircraft seems to be going to take off.
"Hayao, please help to take care of your little brother. Dad is about to be back! And get your room cleaned up quickly!"
"Okay. I get it."

From the corridor was his mother's voice. Hayao dared not to ignore her. Immediately he cleaned up the mess of drawings and crayons. Mother was very strict with her children. She hated seeing their rooms in a mess, and wanted them to be always clean and tidy.

While Hayao was cleaning up, he held up one of his aircraft drawings high and stuck it on the frame of a window. The aircraft seems to be going to fly into the blue sky. He thought, "When I have grown up, I must be a pilot, and fly the best plane in the world."

This little boy, who loved to draw all kinds of flying machines, was the famous master of anime, Hayao Miyazaki.

Until today, although Miyazaki has never had his dream realized, he has weaved this dream of flying into every single animated movie he has produced. What had turned this little boy with a dream of being a pilot, into an animator that specifically works to bring happiness to children?

On 5th January, 1941, Hayao Miyazaki was born in Bunkyo district (文京區) of Tokyo. He was the second of the four boys in the family. Because of the wartime evacuation, the family moved from Tokyo to Kanuma city (鹿沼市) of Utsunomiya (宇都宮). The war was about to end by that time, but the big cities like Tokyo and Osaka were frequently-visited targets of the US air raids. Miyazaki's uncle who lives in Kanuma city had an aircraft factory. Therefore the family could move to Kanuma for safety, and the father of Miyazaki worked as a superintendent in the factory.

Miyazaki had been studying in an elementary school in Utsunomiya till primary three. He often held an origami-plane in his hands and ran on the sides of the fields merrily. Bouncing and running around, his hands seemed to have become wings, and he was ready to fly into the blue open sky.

In Kanuma city, Miyazaki had the best of his childhood. Even as a grown-up, he often recalls bits of the memories in the country of Kanuma.

In the Miyazaki movie of "My Neighbour Totoro," the opening scene of the girls in their dad's car on their way to a new home, and the scenery of the country and the forest, was one of the best impressions in Miyazaki's mind. Sealed in this animated movie are the secrets of his childhood!


...To be continued...

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My light novel review blog: ラノなの！@ novel.co.nr

Interesting articles... I'd love to know the next...

Btw.. you're Chinese is very great... I wondering are you Taiwanese or Hongkong?

__________________
私のスペシャルブレンドだ。その都度味が変わるので、
保証はできないね。 F(^^)

quote:

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Originally posted by Neko Danshaku =^^=
Interesting articles... I'd love to know the next...

Btw.. you're Chinese is very great... I wondering are you Taiwanese or Hongkong?

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Thanks. I hope that you can give some suggestions for improvment on my English . I feel that it occasionally sounds clumsy. (=_= )

Hehe, FYI I am a HK-breed black cat born in Karikiya.


Mum's ill!

Young Miyazaki often helped to settle the disputes of his brothers. As Mother's health was not very good, he did not want to increase her burden. Being in a family with four naughty boys, besides countless dirty clothes that had to be washed, Mother had to prepare lots of food to fill up the little stomachs. She was very competent and clever, and often instructed Hayao and his brothers on their homework. It seemed like no problem could knock down this able mother!

Hayao respected his mother very much, and he tried his best to do his own things right. Although Mother was seemingly surrounded by an invisible haze of sombreness, making Hayao to be both frightened and respectful, he was still quite worried at his mother's health. He felt that Mother had been very busy everyday. He could easily hear her coughs.

"Mum, don't be so busy cleaning the floor! Take a rest. See! My newly drawn combat-fighter."

"Oh, how many planes have you drawn today?" Mother was looking at the paper handed to her by Hayao. But her hands were still not free, and continued to clean the Japanese-style floor with all her strength.

"Five... Umm no, seems to be seven!" Upon hearing Mother's question, Hayao showed his hands that were dyed in a palette of colours, and seriously counted the number of drawings.

"Eh... Hayao, seems like you draw only planes and warships. Why not draw people?"

"Oh mum you have discovered it! I have tried. But I still think that my planes are the prettiest.

"Uh... Wow, Hayao, your hands are so dirty. Cough... Get them washed now. And yes, Hayao will be a primary one student next year! Don't draw planes for the whole day. You have to start to learn words from your elder brother."

"Yes. I know." Hayao answered briskly.

Although Mother felt that Hayao had the talents of drawing, occasionally she put up a stern face to pester her son not to forget about his school works. As long as it was Mother who told Hayao to do something, no matter how dissatisfied he was, he always followed her commands obediently. It was because he knew very well about Mother's poor health condition, and could not afford to provoke her into anger.

"Cough... Hayao, Dad's back! Help me to prepare the table. Cough..."

"Okay, I'm coming." Hayao put his drawings into a drawer in an extremely careful manner like handling a piece of treasure. Whenever Mother coughed, Hayao's heart jumped, with a kind of sadness that was indescribable in words.

He thought he was going to be a primary one student. So he should learn to be a self-disciplined child that Mother needed not to worry about.

Later, because of prolong coughing; Mother's illness was becoming more and more serious. In 1947, she was diagnosed as having tuberculosis. Since then she had been lying on a sickbed for nine years. To Miyazaki, his mother's illness is the most unforgettable and profound part of his childhood memory.

For each time Hayao went to the hospital to visit Mother, he naively thought that she would return home very soon. However, at that time, tuberculosis was an infectious disease that was very difficult to be cured. The pale face of Mother, her intermittent coughs, the strange smell of medicines in the hospital... All of them repeated themselves continuously in Hayao’s childhood.

Sometimes, Hayao felt that Mother seemed to be very far away from him. Sometimes, she seemed to be right next to him. He really hoped that Mother could recover soon, so that she needed not to stay at the hospital for all times, and the whole family could live together happily.

Even though it was a truly sincere hope, for a total of nine years, Hayao’s hope was never realized. Mother could not return home, and leave Hayao with only an impression of her feeble smile on a sickbed. To Hayao, even a hug from Mother was an extravagant hope.

Unlike other children at his age, he could not enjoy the snacks made by his Mother when he returned home; He could not listen to his mother's lullaby at bedtime; He could not act like a spoiled brat on Mother's lap... Every now and then, Hayao thought about how good it would be if Mother was with him.

Now, we can see in "Totoro," little Hayao's hope for Mother's recovery, was really that strong and sincere.

Mei in "Totoro" learnt from Granny the good effect of corns on patients. Therefore she picked an ear of corn from the fields and decided to bring it to her mother. She valiantly went through the forests and the fields to go to the hospital. In an attempt to find her lost sister, Satsuki nervously ran around everywhere, making all of us to be as anxious as her. Fortunately, thanks to the help of Totoro, the whole family eventually reunited at the hospital.


...to be continued...

__________________
My light novel review blog: ラノなの！@ novel.co.nr

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Thanks. I hope that you can give some suggestions for improvment on my English . I feel that it occasionally sounds clumsy. (Jiji)
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My English is clumsy too but the good point is... Indonesian language often directly copy-paste from English so many vocabs are same with English... but with differents spell and pronunciation... such as (computer/komputer; benzene/bensin; appreciation/apresiasi) actually I'm very suck in grammar!



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Hehe, FYI I am a HK-breed black cat born in Karikiya.
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And I'm a Guangzhou breed yellow cat baron born in Indonesia ^^

__________________
私のスペシャルブレンドだ。その都度味が変わるので、
保証はできないね。 F(^^)

I honestly couldn't tell that you did not speak English as a first language until I read this post. Your english is very good.

The biography is very interesting! I never knew that the mother's illness in Totoro was based on his acctually mother. Keep the chapters coming!

__________________
I'd help you, but I'm about to have a baby

quote:

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Originally posted by Neko Danshaku =^^=
My English is clumsy too but the good point is... Indonesian language often directly copy-paste from English so many vocabs are same with English... but with differents spell and pronunciation... such as (computer/komputer; benzene/bensin; appreciation/apresiasi) actually I'm very suck in grammar!

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Indonesian sounds really like katakana then! And yea I really hate grammar. Language is meant to enhance interpersonal communication. But those redundant and ridiculous grammar stuff rather impedes it.

quote:

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Originally posted by PotatoShark
I honestly couldn't tell that you did not speak English as a first language until I read this post. Your english is very good.

The biography is very interesting! I never knew that the mother's illness in Totoro was based on his acctually mother. Keep the chapters coming!

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Thank you very much and I am glad to hear that you enjoyed it. Anyway welcome to the forums.





Dad taking up the role of Mum

We can see that Mother's illness has cast a great shadow on Miyazaki. Until in 1988 when he was producing "Totoro," as a middle-aged man, this vivid memory had still been clinging on his mind. Back at the times when Mother was ill, he was merely a primary school boy, but was a boy that often had to grow without the accompany of his mother. He was very much like Satsuki in "Totoro," not only had to be independent, but also had to take up the responsibility of doing housework and taking care of his siblings.

Young Hayao had a very deep impression of his father taking up Mother's role. After finishing the whole day's tiresome work and back to home, Father had to prepare dinner with the four boys, bath together, and listen to their chats about the happenings in school... Hayao could not disturb Mother from her resting too often, so he naturally had more opportunities to chat with Father and play games with him. Of course, Father spent some of his time on instructing Hayao on his drawings. After all he was the superintendent of an aircraft factory. No one could be more familiar with the structure of the planes than Father himself.

Hayao's dependence and confidence on Father was later shown in his animated works. The father in "Totoro," while moving into the new house, with all the work almost done by him, still took time to teach his daughters to respect the ancient earth and trees. He was also willing to listen to his children. Even when he was busy with his work at the study, he did not feel annoyed when Mei brought him little flowers and insects. With a smile on his face, he followed his children to play in the backyard. He would never ignore his children no matter how busy he was. Miyazaki vividly showed in "Totoro" the attitude of his father when getting along with his children. This is also, to a certain extent, a "tribute" to his father.

For Totoro's funny appearance, at the very beginning, Miyazaki did not have a precise image in his mind. Rather, he thought it "always seems to be a feeling of something surrounding the body." It was only later that he developed the concrete appearance of Totoro.

When children were left alone, especially in darkness, they would be frightened, nervous, or even, be excited for a flash of time, thinking that "something" was going to suddenly show up. It was because of such an imagination that Miyazaki created Totoro.

Although Mother had to lie on a sickbed for a long period of time, making her to be absent in Miyazaki's path of growth, the little boy managed to find a way to get rid of his loneliness.

"I really like to think alone. It seems like something is going to pop up!" The middle-aged Miyazaki told the reporters that all the unconstrained imaginations during childhood helped him to get past many difficult and lonely times. Therefore, whenever Mei or Satsuki in "Totoro" encountered a problem, the mysterious Totoro would show up immediately. And they can freely communicate with each other without the redundant language.

Miyazaki felt that when unpleasant events happen there is probably a mysterious matter around us. This mysterious energy is just like the magical acorn seeds in "Totoro" which help us to forget our tears and pain. As little Hayao wished in his childhood, everyone that encountered difficulties would have a Totoro in their heart, which would carry their sadness and difficulties, and fly straight into the future.


...to be continued...

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My light novel review blog: ラノなの！@ novel.co.nr

Having read Jiji's posts about Miyazaki's childhood, I see Totoro in a whole different perspective and also value it much more than seeing it the first time.

Miyazaki felt that when unpleasant events happen there is probably a mysterious matter around us. This mysterious energy is just like the magical acorn seeds in "Totoro." These seeds help us to forget our tears and pain. As little Hayao wished in his childhood, everyone that encountered difficulties would have a Totoro in their heart, which would carry their sadness and difficulties, and fly straight into the future.

It's amazing to see how Hayao is still capable of keeping his inner-child and memories so fresh and alive.

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隠された楽園

Post last edited by Azhur on 06.02.2005, 07:27 AM.

quote:

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Originally posted by Azhur
Having read Jiji's posts about Miyazaki's childhood, I see Totoro in a whole different perspective and also value it much more than seeing it the first time.

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Yea it is amazing to see Miyazaki drew so many inspirations of Totoro from his childhood. Knowing more about the director's childhood really helps to understand his works.



2. Witnessed in the war

Tokyo in ruins


As Mother needed further treatment for her illness, the family moved to Tokyo again.

Little Hayao loathed to leave Kanuma city. Kanuma lied at the Northeast side of Tokyo and was about 100 kilometers away from the capital. It was also a neighbour of Nikko city (日光市), with an endless belt of mountains. Living in this great Shangri-la is the same as being nurtured in the bosom of the mountains. Staying in the country of Kanuma, Hayao was like a vivacious little wild rabbit, hopping around here and there.

Back in the times when Hayao lived in Tokyo, he often carried a drawing board on his back and went around for sketching. But for this time, seeing so many old buildings being destroyed by the war, he was very sad. He hated to see his living place being damaged with no reason at all.

The little mind of Miyazaki could already experience the indescribable pain brought by wars. This kind of emotion never stopped accumulating in his heart.

The post-war Japan had a prolonged shortage of goods. Though Hayao never had to worry about his food and clothes, when he was back to school, he could see his classmates not being able to have meals everyday. Even their clothes were in tatters. Some of them had their homes being blown up into pieces, and had to stay in the air-raid shelters. Some even lost their parents, and became poor and forsaken orphans.

Whenever he saw something like that, he always thought in sorrow, "Why are there wars in this world? Why can't all the children be allowed to study and play joyfully?"

He asked his father, "Dad, can we move back to the country? I like there. Tokyo is filled up with collapsed buildings. It's so terrible!"

Father seemed to be forced to give this answer without any choice, "Be a good boy, Hayao. Dad also like the quiet country. But Mum needs to stay in the hospital for her treatment. We'd better stay here. At least the war has now ended."

However Hayao could not really understand every word of Father. He thought that his father's factory produced cargo planes. Sometimes he wanted to ask who the one which made those bombers was. Whoever it was, it was totally wrong to have such things produced.

Nevertheless, Hayao never asked this question. He knew that Father already had enough troubles for him to deal with. He always worried about Mother's illness, and often went to the hospital to take care of her. Not sure of why, the youngest brother of Hayao always cried at that time. Probably the boys were fighting for toys again. They would not stop annoying Father. How could Father go to the hospital then?

Hayao suddenly came up with a good idea. He took out several comics that he drew some time ago, and brought them to his brothers. "See! Here's a story drawn by me. This is a very, very big airport, with planes all around the world. One day, the sky is suddenly filled up with fighters. Too bad! The enemy found the base..."

Hayao's brothers were stunned, and gaped at Hayao's "self-directed" performance. The noisy fighting boys suddenly became obedient children and sat quietly. Probably they had already forgotten the fighting. Making use of this opportunity, Father slipped out of the door and went to the hospital. He could always set his mind at rest when Hayao was taking care of his brothers, as the young boy was very good at pacifying children.

Soon after, Hayao took out his crayons and taught his brothers to draw. As both his father and uncle were working at an aircraft factory, Hayao had been having a keen interest in drawing planes and warships since he was at a very young age. Besides, he loved drawing manga. However he was not skilled at drawing people. Thus he admired the manga master, Osamu Tezuka very much.



...to be continued...

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A Tezuka fan

Every piece of work of Osamu Tezuka, including The Adventure of Rokku (ロック冒険記), Detective Bun-chan (探偵ブンチャン), is Hayao's beloved treasure. He was never tired of imitating the scenes and the characters. He even drew a manga himself for his brothers, pretending that he was Tezuka!

Being in the earliest stage of the manga era, Osamu Tezuka was very popular among the children. His works, like Astro Boy, Emperor of the Jungle (ジャングル大帝), and Meteor Prince (流星王子), were all well-received by the readers. Tezuka's manga not only moistened the post-war Japanese youngsters' lean and thirsty minds, but also created good examples and models for the succeeding manga works. The Tezuka works have a natural feeling of life, and deliver anti-war messages at the same time. They had a profound influence on young Miyazaki, and inspired him to dream of working in the manga field.

Miyazaki once made a promise to himself that, after he had grown up, he must be a successful manga artist like Tezuka.

It was in the early post-war period that the Miyazaki family moved back to Tokyo. Thanks to Father's stable occupation, the family was quite well-off, and could supply Hayao with an unlimited amount of papers and paint for him to draw pictures. Therefore Hayao was a very fortunate child indeed.

Within the eight years from Miyazaki's birth to 1948, he had already grown from a baby to a primary school student. There were also quite a number of significant events in this period. On 15th August, 1945, Japan surrendered unconditionally. The World War II eventually came to an end.

Having experienced years of war, Japan was suffering from an economic depression, and there were ruins everywhere. At the same time, Japan was also preparing a new democratic constitution. The steps of destruction and construction proceed together. It was in the destroyed, yet recovering Tokyo, that Miyazaki spent his childhood and adolescent.


It was difficult to lead a stable life under the shadow of the war. Nevertheless, Miyazaki always managed to find his happiness in drawing pictures. That was because he had been possessing the greatest weapon, imagination, for resisting against the great contemporary tragedy of war. Whenever Miyazaki felt awfully lonely and helpless, even when facing the fated "war", he let his wings of imagination fly freely in his mind.

In 1958, Miyazaki was already a year-3 high-school student. He had to face the university entrance exam, and his mind was wandering about for his future.



...to be continued...

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keep up the good work, very interesting!

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Originally posted by ethereal
keep up the good work, very interesting!

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Thanks for your interest ! I will post the follow-up chapter soon.

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My light novel review blog: ラノなの！@ novel.co.nr

Can anyone smell the traits of Kiki and Ursula in Miyazaki's experience on manga drawing?



The shock brought by Hakujuden (白蛇伝)

At that time, the first feature-length colour animation in the movie history of Japan, the Toei-produced Hakujaden, was eventually shown! Notwithstanding the heavy work load in his study, Miyazaki overcame all his difficulties and rushed to a theatre to enjoy the movie. He was deeply mesmerized by the story. To him, the fact that individual pictures can be turned into a movie by rapid replay was a breath of fresh air.

On the big screen, watching each frame jumping with the music, Miyazaki seemed to be able to see the direction of his future. An insuppressible sense of joy filled his heart up. He wanted to yell loudly,

"I finally realize which my own path is! Later, I have to make my very own animated movie."

After seeing Hakujaden, Miyazaki walked alone in the icy-cold winter night. He was impressed by the story, and a drop of tear rolled down his cheek. Despite of the chilly weather, his heart was very warm. Hakujaden not only changed Miyazaki, who originally had been interested in nothing but manga, but also directed him to the path of animation. He no longer hoped to be a manga artist like Tezuka in his future. No matter how much he practised, he found that all his drawings were imitations of Tezuka's work. Regardless of his effort, he could hardly break himself of from such a constrain.

When Miyazaki was about to give up his goal of being a manga artist, Tezuka also had a large-scale innovation. In 1961, he founded "Mushi Production!" That meant even Tezuka realized that his manga work was advancing to an unbreakable limit. The best way to get beyond that limit was to let the plain flat drawings to "move!"

Therefore when talking about Miyazaki "the national animation master," we can never overlook the influence of Tezuka on his early animataed works. In 1963, the Tezuka-produced Astro Boy animation was shown on Fuji TV for the first time. Tezuka's Princess Knight (リボンの騎士) was also animated as a feature movie with characteristics of the famous Takarazuka opera (宝塚歌劇). That was a great encouragement to Miyazaki, as it showed the infinite plasticity of manga creations.

Although Tezuka and Miyazaki did not know each other personally at that time, great minds think alike. They had very similar views towards the manga reforms. Both of them had a great passion in manga, but they were not as stubborn as to do nothing but draw manga. When they realized that a larger goal was waiting for them ahead, they would make an all-out effort to achieve it.

Miyazaki already had such an ambition even when he was still a student. On one hand, he studied diligently. On the other hand, he read the Japanese and foreign children literature extensively. He was never tired of reading various types of children stories. He particularly liked to imagine how awesome it would be if those stories could be animated. Therefore he still had a keen interest in drawing. His skills were even more polished than before.

Despite of being sunk into the world of manga and anime, Miyazaki worried at the unstable situation very much.

Japan was a defeated nation in the WWII. After the end of the war, fearing that militarism and extreme nationalism would rise again in Japan, the US-leaded allied nations implemented a series of social and political reforms in Japan, attempting to turn her into a permanently neutral state. In 1946, the "peaceful constitution" was drawn up, with emphases on sovereignty of people, Emperor system, pacifism, and renunciation of war.

In 1960, the treaty of mutual cooperation and security between Japan and America (日米安全保障条約) triggered off widespread student movements. Many students participated in the movements against the security treaty. Everyone was angry with the constitution that prohibited Japan from participating in wars and establishing an army, and the article that forbade her from armament.

Miyazaki had always been "anti-war." He really did not want to see everything having to be solved by violence. Essentially it was such a twisted thought that brought about the uncivilized product of "war!"

Miyazaki had been thinking about how to face adversities with peaceful ways that do not disturb the nature. The war left him with deep grieves. While the countless number of broken families burnt an unforgettable impression in his mind. Miyazaki told himself to never easily forget the pains brought by wars to people. He always thought, "War is indeed a savage act! One day, I will draw the sufferings of the wars. I must tell all those people who easily initiate wars without thinking: not to do such cruel things any more."


...to be continued...

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Very nice to read! Thanks for taking the time! I still haven't read it all, but I will very soon!

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www.ghibliworld.com

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Originally posted by wushu-4-ever
Very nice to read! Thanks for taking the time! I still haven't read it all, but I will very soon!

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Thanks for your support. I am now working on the next chapter.

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Wow! That's so amazing that Miyazaki's movies are based on his childhood! It's very interesting, because when you read that, and then watch the movies, it gives you more appreciation for his work. Keep up the good work. BTW, your English is very good.

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Excelent work jiji

keep it up!

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by mpw3d

Thank you for all your compliments. I am very sorry that the translation project has been stalled for such an extended period of time. Now I have a little bit of spare time and can do a bit translation . But I am wondering if I should resume this project, or start another one which mainly focuses on translating a number of selected articles/interviews/project proposals of Miyazaki.

Those articles/interviews/project proposals are not as amusing as Miyazaki's personal story, but I think they can help us to explore Miyazaki's works from his own perspective, which is beneficial towards enhancing our understanding of his works.

I'd love to hear your views.

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My light novel review blog: ラノなの！@ novel.co.nr

I know that this is probably a lot of work, but maybe you could do both. Like just translate 1 chapter from the book, and do 1 interview or something. I think I would enjoy reading about the project proposals. It's just a suggestion, so you should do what you want to.

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First signature made by kittycatjess. Thank you so much!
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I think it would be better to know miyazaki's life first, that way it would be easier to understand his works.

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by mpw3d

Oh that's a good point Gorgy..

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