Released on July 12, 1997, Princess Mononoke(Studio Ghibli Official) is an animated film directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Its tagline was “Live.” It was the first Studio Ghibli film, and the first Miyazaki film, to earn more than 10 billion yen at the Japanese box office. It ultimately reached 19.3 billion yen, or 20.1 billion including the re-release during the pandemic.
Its commercial success is remarkable, but so is the peculiar feeling it can leave you with: “That was certainly interesting, but why was it interesting?” I first saw Princess Mononoke in elementary school. I remember leaving the theater wondering what I had just seen and how to understand the ending.
Here I’ll summarize the story of Princess Mononoke and explore some of its ideas. Be warned: the synopsis covers the whole film, so if you want to avoid spoilers, stop partway through and watch it first.
*This is a translated version. The original (Japanese) is available here.
- Detailed Synopsis & Character Map
Cursed by a Tatarigami, Ashitaka leaves home and encounters a conflict between humans and nature. He meets San, the girl known as Princess Mononoke, and ultimately chooses to seek coexistence and build a life in a new place. Below are a more detailed synopsis, a character map, and an exploration of the story. - Questions and Interpretations
We’ll consider Kaya’s Dagger, the meaning of Deicide, the Pitch-Black End Credits, and Lady Eboshi’s Hidden Ambition, along with Ashitaka’s role, the Tatarigami, and the Forest Spirit. I’ll also explore a reading of Princess Mononoke alongside Godzilla, with links to the blog’s more detailed discussions.
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Princess Mononoke (1997): Synopsis (Spoilers)
The Story in Ten Points
Here is a brief outline of Princess Mononoke:
- The Curse and the Departure
Ashitaka receives a curse from the Tatarigami that attacks his village and leaves on a journey to lift it. - Irontown
Guided by Jiko-bō, Ashitaka reaches the forest of the Forest Spirit and finds shelter in Irontown, an ironmaking settlement. - The Anger of the Forest Gods
The forest’s gods respond to human development with fierce anger and grief. - San, Princess Mononoke
Raised by the wolf god Moro, San stands against humans as Princess Mononoke. - Ashitaka Meets San
Caught between opposing sides, Ashitaka meets San, and the two come to know each other’s suffering and hopes. - Eboshi’s Plans
To secure Irontown’s future, Eboshi makes a secret agreement with the Emperor’s side and sets out to take the Forest Spirit’s head. - Humans and Nature Clash
Okkoto and the other boars cross from Kyushu to protect the Forest Spirit and face the humans in a decisive battle. - Ashitaka Between Two Sides
Understanding the pain and position of both sides, Ashitaka searches for a possibility of harmony and reconciliation. - The Cost of Battle
The forest is severely damaged, and the Forest Spirit disappears from view. - Hope for Coexistence
After the battle, Ashitaka chooses to live in Irontown and San in the forest. They must find their way into a new era.
Character Map
A Reading of the Story: Unfairness and Absurdity
Although the title is Princess Mononoke, I read the story primarily through Ashitaka. Taking him as the protagonist brings a particular theme into focus.
That theme is absurdity—the unfairness of what happens to him.
Ashitaka is to become his village’s leader, and he saves it from the Tatarigami. Yet he is driven from home. Looking for a reason that justifies the attack or his curse gets us nowhere: these things happen whether he wants them to or not. And it is Ashitaka alone who pays the price.
I see the Tatarigami in Princess Mononoke as a symbol of whatever brings that inescapable unfairness into our lives.
The Godzilla Connection: One way of approaching this is through disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and typhoons. The original Godzilla offers another cinematic image of a calamity people cannot simply will away.
People caught in destruction they cannot control must try to survive and rebuild. I see a connection between that situation and Ashitaka’s encounter with the Tatarigami in Princess Mononoke. That is the sense in which I read Mononoke as “Miyazaki’s Godzilla.”
People will read the ending differently. But Ashitaka comes through an unjust situation and finds a new place to live in Irontown, so I personally see his story as having a happy ending.
Now let’s follow his journey through to that ending.
Detailed Synopsis: From Exile to the Ending
The Beginning: Ashitaka’s Curse and Exile
The story takes place in the Muromachi period. In what is now northeastern Japan, descendants of the Emishi still live hidden in the mountains, beyond the reach of recorded history. Ashitaka is a young man expected to become his community’s leader.
His day begins ordinarily enough. Then a Tatarigami—a fearsome, cursed god—appears and heads toward the village.
Ashitaka tries to calm it, but it will not stop. Knowing that he is committing a forbidden act, he draws his bow to protect the village. The first arrow makes the god recoil, but its curse strikes his right arm. He fires again to stop it.
The two arrows bring down the Tatarigami, but its curse remains on Ashitaka’s arm. He has saved his village at the risk of his life.
Yet that curse becomes the reason he is driven from home. It is a harsh judgment, but he accepts it. He cuts his hair and says farewell to the place he will never return to, setting out west in search of a way to lift the curse.
The villagers tearfully see off the man who was to become their next leader. Ashitaka is supposed to leave alone, but his betrothed, Kaya, comes to bid him farewell. She gives him a dagger as something of herself to take with him, promising, “I will think of you always.”
Ashitaka replies with a beautiful smile, “I will think of you too, Kaya.” That smile is all he can leave her.
With Yakul, his red elk, Ashitaka begins a long journey without a clear destination. Eventually he reaches a settlement and tries to buy rice with a large grain of gold. The seller wants coins, leaving him in an awkward position. A suspicious-looking man intervenes, explaining the gold’s value and settling the matter. The two share a meal made from Ashitaka’s rice.
Over dinner, Ashitaka asks the man, Jiko-bō, about the iron pellet found in the Tatarigami’s body. Jiko-bō appears not to know about it, but tells him of the Forest Spirit’s forest farther west. Its creatures retain their ancient, enormous forms, and perhaps Ashitaka will learn something there. His aimless journey finally has a glimmer of hope.
On the way, Ashitaka notices men being swept along a river. They are badly injured, so he tends to them. Across the river, he sees giant wolves, one of them wounded, with a human girl tending the injury.
Thinking they may live in the forest he is seeking, Ashitaka calls across the river to ask. The girl cuts him off with “Go away!” Then one of the injured men cries out at the sight of Kodama, the forest’s small spirits.
The man is frightened, but Ashitaka says the Kodama are a sign of a healthy forest. Trusting them, he follows their guidance deeper among the trees.
They reach a quiet pool. As Ashitaka approaches to drink, he notices a strange creature beyond the water.
His cursed arm suddenly throbs. The pain subsides when the creature disappears. What connection might there be between this being and his curse?
Irontown, Eboshi, and San
Ashitaka continues onward, looking after the wounded men, until they reach Irontown. This ironmaking settlement is led by Eboshi and its women. The inhabitants warmly welcome the man who has brought their companions home.
There he hears of Eboshi’s exploits. Ironmaking consumes enormous quantities of wood, making the rich forest a valuable resource. But great boars guarded it, preventing people from taking it. Eboshi drove them away with firearms brought from the continent and established Irontown. A boar badly wounded by her shot fled east.
Ashitaka finally learns that the boar which attacked his village and cursed his arm was driven from this forest by Eboshi.
He confronts her. But when she asks what he intends to do, he can only answer, “To see with eyes unclouded by hate.” He does not yet know what he wants or what he should do.
Eboshi takes a liking to this inexperienced but refreshing young man and shows him her secret garden. There, people suffering from leprosy work hard to develop firearms. Despite their illness, they struggle to live and hold Eboshi in deep respect. She has also brought women out of the brothels to work in Irontown. Looking at people striving so hard to survive, Ashitaka must feel how young he is. The world is wider than he knew.
That night, the wolves Ashitaka saw by the river attack Irontown. With them is the girl known as Princess Mononoke—San—intent on killing Eboshi.
San reaches Eboshi, and Ashitaka tries to stop them killing each other. His cursed arm looks more sinister than ever, but he uses its power to knock both women unconscious and end the fight.
Having protected San as well, Ashitaka can no longer stay in Irontown. Carrying her, he heads for the gates and is accidentally shot. Despite the wound, he pushes the gates open and leaves with San and the wolves.
He collapses from his injury. San does not know what to do with him: should she kill him because he is human, or save him? As she hesitates, he tells her, “Live. You are beautiful.”
Disconcerted by those words, San entrusts his fate to the Forest Spirit. She lays him beside the pool where it appears, then leaves.
After a while, the quiet forest begins to stir. The Kodama look up at the giant Night-Walker, or Didarabotchi, whose form seems like the darkness of night itself.
As it approaches the pool, the giant changes into a strange deer-like creature: the Forest Spirit. It goes to Ashitaka and heals his wound with its supernatural power.
Ashitaka wakes to find his wound healed, but the curse on his arm has spread rather than disappeared. He had placed his last hope in the Forest Spirit. Now he must accept a life spent waiting for the curse to consume him.
Giant boars arrive, having crossed the sea from Kyushu to seek the Forest Spirit before a final battle against the humans invading the forest. They are outraged to find a human there and to learn that the Forest Spirit has saved him. Their elder, Okkoto, watches more calmly, but says that next time they meet he will have to kill Ashitaka. Still unable to move freely, Ashitaka goes to stay in San’s dwelling.
The Ending: Killing the Forest Spirit and Choosing Coexistence
After several days in bed, Ashitaka wakes one night and speaks with Moro.
Moro explains that San was a child humans threw away to save themselves. She raised San as her daughter and worries about her future. Ashitaka argues that there is a way to live together, but Moro dismisses him. To someone who has lived as long as Moro, he is still immature. Even so, I think she has a little hope in him.
When he wakes the next morning, San and Moro are gone. Ashitaka gives the remaining wolf Kaya’s dagger and asks him to take it to San. Entrusting her safety to something that has sustained him, he heads for Irontown.
Irontown is under attack by local samurai. Its strong walls and firearms have kept the attackers back, but its defenses are nearing their limit. Eboshi and the men are absent: they have gone to kill the Forest Spirit. The riflemen she brought to Irontown were supplied for that purpose, and she has gone to fulfill the agreement in pursuit of her own ambition.
Ashitaka runs into the mountains to tell Eboshi of Irontown’s danger. Along the way he finds piles of dead boars, killed with explosives by Jiko-bō and the forces sent by the Emperor. He finds Irontown’s men among the carnage and tells them what has happened, but Eboshi has gone farther ahead.
With the help of a wolf buried among the dead boars, Ashitaka reaches Eboshi. Her response surprises him: she has given the women weapons in case Irontown is attacked, and she has no intention of going back.
Sensing her determination, Ashitaka abandons the attempt to stop her and hurries to the Forest Spirit’s pool, where San has probably gone. He finds Moro wounded and fallen, but cannot see San. Then Okkoto appears, wounded in battle and transformed into a Tatarigami. San is caught inside him.
Ashitaka tries desperately to rescue her but is thrown off. Seeing this, Moro spends the last strength she had kept for killing Eboshi to pull San free.
The Forest Spirit appears. Eboshi shoots it, but it continues as if nothing has happened. It walks to Okkoto and calmly draws out his life.
Amid all the competing intentions around the pool, the Forest Spirit alone remains aloof. It looks up at the night sky and begins changing into the Night-Walker.
Eboshi does not miss her chance. Ashitaka tries to stop her, but she fires the decisive shot. Jiko-bō’s group catches the severed head and flees. They intend to deliver it to the Emperor, believing that it can grant immortality.
The headless Forest Spirit runs wild, taking life from everything in its path as it searches for its head.
Ashitaka and San pursue Jiko-bō to recover it. Ashitaka wants human hands to make some amends for what humans have done.
Jiko-bō flees desperately, but the danger is closing in. Unable to escape, he gives the head to Ashitaka and San, leaving their fate in the pair’s hands. Together, they lift it high and return it to the Forest Spirit.
The Forest Spirit regains its power as the Night-Walker, but dawn drives away the darkness. Even this being beyond human understanding falls when exposed to sunlight.
The forest from which it has drained life begins a modest recovery through the fallen Forest Spirit’s power. The illnesses of the people in Eboshi’s secret garden have also been healed.
San is distraught at the loss of the forest. Ashitaka tells her, “The Forest Spirit cannot die. He is life itself.” Whether the forest has truly lost the Forest Spirit remains unclear. Whatever the answer, Ashitaka, San, Eboshi, and the people of Irontown must go on living in a deeply unsettled world.
San says she likes Ashitaka but cannot forgive humans, and chooses to return to the mountains. He promises to ride Yakul to visit her. He will live as a member of Irontown and take on the task of maintaining a balance between it and the forest.
The new place Ashitaka has finally found is beginning to rebuild under the injured Eboshi.
A harsh fate may await Irontown. Even so, its people will struggle to live, and Ashitaka will struggle alongside them. I can only wish them well.
That is my synopsis of Princess Mononoke. I’ve emphasized Ashitaka’s perspective and left quite a lot out, but I hope the story’s course is clear. Next, let’s consider some of its questions and ideas.
Princess Mononoke: Analysis and Interpretation
The Controversy of Kaya’s Dagger
One scene in Princess Mononoke invites an obvious protest: Ashitaka gives San the dagger Kaya gave him. As a child, I thought, “Ashitaka, why?!” Watching it now, I feel a little differently.
As a child, I did not understand the hardship of his exile. Taking that suffering into account can change how we read the gift. Still, I think our first reaction—”Ashitaka, why?!”—deserves to be kept too.
Read the full discussion: Why Does Ashitaka Give Kaya’s Dagger to San?
What Does Killing a God Mean?
One answer to “What kind of story is Princess Mononoke?” is that it is a story of deicide—the killing of a god. That certainly describes much of the latter half. The important question, though, is what it means for a human to kill a god.
It is a complicated question, and opinions will differ. What matters is encountering views unlike our own. How do you read this act? The linked article offers my interpretation.
Read the full analysis: The Meaning of Deicide and the Fall of the Forest Spirit
The Mystery of the Pitch-Black End Credits
The end credits of Princess Mononoke roll against a black background. This stands out beside films such as Totoro, Kiki, and Porco Rosso, whose credits include images of life after the story.
The theme song gives Princess Mononoke‘s black screen extraordinary beauty and conviction. But why did Miyazaki depart from his earlier films? The linked article explores the question. Perhaps the truth is simply that there wasn’t time to make a background.
Read the full analysis: Why Are the End Credits of Princess Mononoke Completely Black?
Lady Eboshi’s Hidden Ambition
Eboshi is one of the many compelling people whose backgrounds remain largely untold. At first she appears to be a good ruler, and we quickly warm to her. Yet her refusal to return and save Irontown during the hunt for the Forest Spirit can leave us uneasy. It did me.
We could dismiss it by saying she was a terrible person all along, but stopping there wouldn’t be very interesting. Why did she refuse to return? Trying to put an answer into our own words is part of enjoying the film. Thinking about her dreams and despair brings tears to my eyes. Perhaps Eboshi was the true protagonist after all. Perhaps.
Read the full character analysis: Lady Eboshi’s Hidden Ambition
The “True Protagonist” Debate
Who is the protagonist of Princess Mononoke? It is a question with plenty of room for discussion.
This isn’t a school comprehension test; you can choose whoever you think fits. A less conventional answer may be all the more interesting. Personally, I clearly see Ashitaka as the protagonist, for reasons explored below. Who would you choose?
Read the full analysis: Ashitaka as Protagonist and the People Who Hide Their Feelings
What Was the Tatarigami?
The Tatarigami is impossible to ignore. Asked what it represents, I would describe it as a symbol of hatred.
The more important question is why this story needs such a symbol. Why do you think the Tatarigami belongs in Princess Mononoke? The linked article explores my answer.
Read the full analysis: What Was the Tatarigami? Hatred as an Absurd Calamity
Princess Mononoke as Miyazaki’s “Godzilla”
At the end of the film, the mark of the curse on Ashitaka’s arm has not completely disappeared.
It is natural to read the remaining mark as an expression of the film’s unresolved problems. We could see it as a disappointing ending in which the curse never quite disappears. Yet tracing parallels with the original Godzilla also allows a more positive reading: Ashitaka survives, even if the mark remains. What does that mark mean to you?
Read the full analysis: The Meaning of Ashitaka’s Mark and the Godzilla Connection
The Meaning of “He Is Life Itself”
When San mourns the loss of the Forest Spirit’s forest, Ashitaka tells her, “He cannot die. He is life itself. He is both life and death.”
You might wonder what those words mean, yet find them convincing enough to let the question pass. They can be read as comfort for San. But Miyazaki’s description of the Forest Spirit as a “lower-ranking god” in a discussion may offer another way to understand them. I explore that reading in the linked article. How do you understand the line?
Read the full discussion: The Meaning of “He Is Life Itself”
An Aside: San’s Strong Arms
This isn’t really an interpretive question, but take a look at the official Ghibli still below:
Notice the strength of San’s arms. Living in the forest requires strength, and that life would naturally build it. Taking care to depict such things is one of the pleasures of Miyazaki’s work.
Some might object to the absence of armpit hair. But I suspect that omission has to do with something other than realism.
If they drew it here, they would have to draw it in every other scene where it was visible. Imagine the extra work: several times as much, perhaps dozens of times as much! The film would never be ready for its release date. Well, there may be other reasons too. I wonder what the answer really is.
Princess Mononoke (1997) Trivia & Fun Facts Collection
For more background and production anecdotes about the film, see the related article below:
Read the trivia collection: Princess Mononoke: Trivia & Fun Facts
The images used in this article are from Studio Ghibli Still Images.
Can you name the movie before the scene comes into focus?
Put your visual memory to the test with a blurred Studio Ghibli scene.
Excellent and thought-provoking analyze!