Ecofeminism in Studio Ghibli's Film "Princess Mononoke"

Princess Mononoke is an animated film released in 1997 by Studio Ghibli and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. The director, Hayao Miyazaki, is known for the strong female characters and uses environmental issues in his works. Princess Mononoke is one of his popular works that use a strong female character as one of the main characters and brings environmental issues to the plot. The story is set in the late Muromachi period in Japan around the 14th century. The story first introduces a male character named Prince Ashitaka, who is infected by a demon-possesed boar attack, and he begins his journey to seeks a cure from the god of the forest. In his journey, he witnesses humans destroying the earth, causing the outrage of Moro the wolf god, and the human companion San the Princess Mononoke. His attempts to broker peace between her and the humans bring the only conflict. This essay is going to examine the story using ecofeminism as the approach.

Ecofeminism is a branch of feminism, which first introduced in 1974 by a French feminist Françoise d’Eaubonne. Ecofeminism, also known as Ecological feminism, investigates the connections between women and nature. An ecofeminism analysis is trying to examine the oppression of nature and the oppression of women in literature. Through the lens of ecofeminism, the writer tries to reveal a patriarchal framework of the story. There are different kinds of domination that arise between humans, also humans and nature. The conflict between humans and nature is clearly illustrated throughout the story. Lady Eboshi, introduces as a strong female character, both politically and emotionally in the film. Lady Eboshi is Iron Town's leader, a small village where Lady Eboshi forges rifles and cannons with her subordinates. Lady Eboshi takes the role of the leader of Iron Town after she and her subordinates successfully win an attack against a boar god and the protector of the mountains namely Nago. She displays dominance and brutality toward nature, both in the form of resource acquisition and physical violence against the forest’s  living.

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While her attitude toward nature is clearly violent, she treats her own citizens with care and compassion. Lady Eboshi’s character shows a constant contrast between her words, actions, and appearance. She constantly makes efforts to maintain her power through a mask of masculine behaviors and leadership style, though she also performs aspects of a feminine presentation through her elegant clothing, styled hair, and make-up. In the end, the real tragedy is not that she is evil but the fact that she is female. The technology she established and nature was not completely destroyed. Eboshi was destroyed by trying to change the social and natural order. Prince Ashitaka declares that Iron Town should be rebuilt in a way that works in harmony with the nature spirits and the forest.

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The theme of ecofeminism also occurs through San’s companionship with the land and forest creatures. Princess Mononoke gives the animals and forest creatures the ability to talk in human language as an effort to humanize them and allow the characters to understand each other and form connections with them. From figure 2 and figure 3, eventhough San loathes human who destroy the environment, she still thinks about the ecosystem sustainability which can’t be balanced without humans. There is also her believes that the god of the forest will be able to restore the balance of nature that has been damaged due to the human activities, and her respect towards nature and the creatures in it. Those characteristics of San makes her character full of the ethics of ecofeminism.

In conclusion, Princess Mononoke, despite being a movie released in the 1990s, is the kind of movie that brings issues that still can be discussed until this day which are feminism and environmental issues. Humans still faced with the same issues even after the years passed. Women still struggle from oppression but things sure are better than in the past. However, the environmental issues humans faced are getting worse as the day goes by. As mentioned in the movie by Prince Ashitaka, we need to rethink our ways of life that are not causing harm to nature.