FILM STUDIES

Shinto Symbolism in Spirited Away ⛩️

When we think about the 2001 Studio Ghibli film Spirited Away, the first thing that usually comes to mind is the strange and wonderous spirits that appear throughout the movie. Many of these deities, such as Yubaba (the owner of the bathhouse) and Haku (a river deity), are based on Japanese legends, mythology, and Shinto folklore.

In Japanese, “Shinto” literally means “the way of the gods," and is one of the most popular religions in Japan today.

So what kinds of Shinto symbols appear in Spirited Away?

💡 Things to consider

• The meaning behind the title: While Spirited Awayis very familiar to most of us, we usually don't think about the meaning behind its name. In Japanese, a "Kamikakushi" (or a "Spiriting Away") refers to someone being taken away by gods in secret. Throughout the movie, Chihiro (the main character) is "spirited away", leaving the human world behind. Chihiro must help fantastical guests at Yubaba's bathhouse to escape the spirit world. In ancient Japanese fables, Shinto gods often cause mysterious disappearances or deaths when people go against their wishes.

• Traditional structures - torii gates & dosojin: Decorating every Japanese Shinto shrine, torii gates signify the division between the earthly and sacred realms. At the very start of the film, Chihiro and her family pass a torii gate. This was the first indication that they were approaching a world ruled by spirits. Before crossing the barrier between worlds, the family reach a tunnel guarded by a Dosojin statue. In Shintoism, it is believed that Dosojin are guardian deities that protect people from evil spirits. This foreshadows Chihiro's safety after she enters the spirit realm. Although she encounters many harmful gods, Chihiro is ultimately protected by positive forces.

• The bathhouse: For many people, Spirited Away's fictional bathhouse is its defining feature. Here, workers use herbs to cleanse spirits on their journey through worlds. In Shinto tradition, herbs are often used in ritual purification ceremonies for their healing properties. This symbolic use of water and herbs to cleanse people is thought to remove bad luck, disease and even guilt.

🔎 Find out more

• Spirited Away, 2001 (film)

• https://www.britannica.com/topic/Shinto

• https://www.cbr.com/spirited-away-anime-film-real-japanese-folklore-mythology-inspiration/

NEUROSCIENCE

From sheep to cannibals to mad cow disease. Shedding light on our mysterious killer 🔪

Our story begins in eighteenth century Britain. Sheep, inbred for commercial purposes, started developing a fatal disease called scrapie which yielded peculiar symptoms. Similarly in New Guinea, another fatal disease called Kuru caused people to wobble and shake uncontrollably with sudden outbursts of laughter. Zigas and Gajdusek realised that the women and the children, who were the most susceptible, had been eating the organs and the brains of their relatives in cannibalistic funeral rituals. Yikes! In Britain, cows were catching another similar disease called Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease, from eating cow offal leading to a moral panic in the 1990s.

At first scientists thought it was a microbe but none of the standard methods of sterilisation could kill it. It also must have been a master at hide and seek since the strongest electron microscopes couldn’t catch it.

💡 Things to consider

• Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s genetic: In 1986, Stanley Prusiner discovered prions, a protease resistant protein. It was present in animals with this mysterious disease but not present in healthy animals of the same species. It didn’t take him long to trace the protein back to its gene. He called it the protease-resistant protein (PRP) gene. Imaginative, I know 🙄. You should check out the names and functions of other genes. They get pretty funky, like the sonic hedgehog gene. These proteins were found before nomenclatures were more commonly used. Nomenclatures are a set of rules for naming things. Why is it important to have nomenclatures instead of naming things based on their look or how you feel?

• Prions: These are proteins found throughout the body but mainly on the surface of nerve cells. Prions can change shape and sometimes they become misfolded. Misfolded prions can force other prions to misfold and they clumpup together disrupting the structure of the cell. You don’t even need a faulty gene to catch one of the prion diseases! All it takes is for the prions to enter through an open wound or by consuming contaminated Scary right?

• Function: Prion proteins like to dabble quite a bit here and there. One important thing they do is to regulate the uptake of glutamate which leads to excitotoxicity in excess. This is the overstimulation of nerve cells which is associated with conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. As you can see, prions aren’t so bad after all…unless they’re a bit misshapen. What other functions do you think prions have? Do you think we may be able to utilise their strange properties and if so, how? Could they be the end to Alzheimer’s disease?

🔎 Find out more

• Prion Sterilization: Common Challenges

• Prion Diseases

• List of unusual biological names

• Guidelines for Human Gene Nomenclature

• Learn about how prions change shape and the “species barrier” in Transition of the prion protein from a structured cellular form (PrPC) to the infectious scrapie agent (PrPSc)

• Possible cure for prion diseases? Dimerization of the cellular prion protein inhibits propagation of scrapie prions

• Look at a 3D interactive model of prions in Molecule of the Month: Prions

• References

  • Ridley M. (1999) Genome: The Autobiography of a species in 23 chapters. London: Fourth Estate Limited.

🍒 The cherry on top

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scotland’s Ocean Power: Tidal and wave energy may be the largest untapped renewable energy resources on the planet. But, how effectively can they be utilised? Check out this article if you’re into Physics.

• 🖼️ Long art: This video explores the concept of long art, artworks that take an exceptionally long time to create or unfold, such as Shilpa Gupta’s ‘Untitled’, a mechanical gate that crashes into a gallery wall, slowly breaking it apart over time. Great if you like Art.

• 🎮 Graph Theory Game: Graph theory is the study of relationships between objects by looking at them as points connected by lines. This is a great online game if you’re into Maths (or just like a fun, addictive game!)

👀 Keep your eyes peeled for…

• 20th May:

  • Homerton College Cambridge Music Subject Focus Session

  • Sheffield Psychology Taster Session

  • UEA Paramedic Science Webinar

• 21st May:

  • Sheffield Automatic Control and Systems Engineering Taster Session

  • Sheffield Orthoptics Taster Session

  • Sheffield Biosciences Taster Session

  • Sheffield Russian Taster Session

• 22nd May:

  • Homerton College Cambridge English Subject Focus Session

  • Sheffield English Literature Taster Session

• 23rd May:

  • St John’s College Cambridge Careers and Financial Support Session

  • Homerton College Cambridge Philosophy and TRPR Subject Focus Session

  • Oxford Public Maths Lecture

  • Sheffield Engineering Taster Session

  • Sheffield History Taster Session

  • Sheffield Education Taster Session

• 24th May:

  • Homerton College Cambridge Law Subject Focus Session

• 25th May:

  • Oxford History Primary Skills Workshop

🗳️ Poll