Exploring music in Hayao
Miyazaki’s animated worlds
Differences between Hollywood scores and the Japanese scores of Miyazaki’s
animated features
Pim Beliën 3216713
26-01-14
Begeleider: Prof. Dr. E. Wennekes
0
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
1
Introduction to Miyazaki, Hisaishi and Studio Ghibli
2
Chapter 1: Anime with and without a Japanese identity
A model to analyze anime
Miyazaki’s worlds and the Japanese identity
7
13
15
Chapter 2: Anime music and the scores of Hollywood
Anime and the music of Hollywood’s live-action cinema
19
23
Chapter 3: Finding ‘Japaneseness’
Ma in Japanese film
28
32
Chapter 4: Calling it Japanese
37
Conclusion
41
Bibliography
44
Appendix
50
1
Introduction to Miyazaki, Hisaishi and Studio Ghibli
In June 1985 Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki founded an animation
production studio called Studio Ghibli together with another animation director Isao
Takahata The studio was founded after the huge success Miyazaki had in Japan with
his film Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Hayao Miyazaki, 1984) and afterwards
the studio produced many more box office hits directed by Miyazaki or Takahata. The
studio’s immense success while producing only feature films was even a primer for
animation studios in Japan as most animation studios just produced TV series and
only occasionally a movie. From its small start with a mere handfuls of part-time
employees, the production studio grew to a massive production company and
eventually had to build their own new studio in a Tokyo suburb after the release of
Porco Rosso (Miyazaki, 1992).
It was only after 1996 that Miyazaki’s work became well known outside of
Japan, because in that year the Walt Disney Coorperation was granted the distribution
rights to Studio Ghibli’s films. This meant another boost in the global awareness
about Japanese animation (anime) as one of Japan’s biggest cultural products. The
first anime boost was in 1989 after the international release and critical success of
Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo, 1988), which led to the appearance of more Japanese
cartoons on television in the West.1 The impact of Miyazaki’s animations on Western
cinema could not be denied after the release of Spirited Away (Miyazaki, 2001). This
film eventually won the academy award in 2002 for best-animated feature and
Miyazaki’s next movie would earn another nomination for the same award in 2004.
The popularity and impact of Japanese animation would also lead to more scholarly
attention and the work of Miyazaki in particular.2
In September 2013 after the premiere of his latest feature, Miyazaki officially
announced his retirement from directing. His body of work proved to be a lot of
valuable research material concerning the nature of Japanese animation by exploring
the building blocks of this particular kind of animation. Furthermore these
explorations of Japanese cartoons also gave insight to the contemporary Japanese
cultural identity in which these cartoons sprouted according to some of the academics
1
Napier, Susan J. Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing Contemporary
Japanese Animation. New York: Palgrave, 2000. p. 3-14.
2
Many of the books covering at least a bit of Japanese animation have separate chapters
devoted to Miyazaki. For example Wells, Paul. “The impact of anime”, in An Introduction to
Film Studies, edited by Jill Nelmes, 248-253. (London: Routledge, 1999).
2
researching these films.3 Many of these academics stress the fact that the influences of
Japanese animations, including Miyazaki’s, are very broad and that this cultural
product is, like any other cultural product, a hybrid.4 There has not been much
attention for the music in anime research, but like anime it can be seen as an
important Japanese cultural product and is thus well worth investigating. The music in
anime is of course like anime also a hybrid product but no literature on anime music
focuses on how this hybrid product is constructed. Therefore this thesis shall explore
the music of Miyazaki’s anime and it will try to find a structural ground on what this
music is based on by examining the relations between the music of Miyazaki’s anime,
the music of Hollywood animation and live-action cinema and a Japanese cultural
identity which in turn is defined by hybridity.
‘Hybridity’ has been a key concept in defining cultures and it originates from
post-colonial theory but its definition is not at all easy to describe. Post-colonial
theorist Homi K. Bhabha first elaborately described this concept following the
Edward Said’s work on cultural imperialism. At its basic level, hybridity refers to any
mixing of various cultures trough interaction, but this definition of cultural mixing in
general is very limited and does not account for the various ways cultures can be
mixed.5 To adequately use the concept in case studies, the way the cultures are
negotiated and reformed needs to be examined and taken into consideration as well
when discussing cultural products.
In the case of Japan there are several academics that have occupied themselves
with describing the structure of a Japanese cultural identity. One of these theorists is
Koichi Iwabuchi and of course the concept of hybridity is a crucial in his discussion
of a Japanese cultural identity and its cultural products. How this hybridity is
structured is according to Iwabuchi rather unique. One of Iwabuchi’s central ideas
about Japanese cultural products is that these products are not associated with a
specific Japanese contemporary way of life. Anime is one of these products Iwabuchi
mentions as being ‘culturally odorless.’6 This is in contrast to some of Japanese
traditions such as religious Shinto practices and festivals that do have a cultural odor.
3
For example see: Poitras, Gilles. The Anime Companion. Berkeley, Calif: Stone Bridge
Press, 1999.
4
This concept is discussed at length in Bhabha, Homi. K. The Location of Culture.
London: Routledge, 1994.
5
Ibid. p. 1-27.
6
Iwabuchi, Kōichi. Recentering Globalization: Popular Culture and Japanese
Transnationalism. Durham: Duke University Press, 2002. p. 24-28.
3
But because anime is not bound to these kind of cultural expressions and only limited
to the imagination of its creator Iwabuchi believes anime does not even have to be
related to any nationality at all.7
In the works of film scholars such as Susan Napier this has proven to be not
entirely true. As stated before, the animation of Miyazaki seems to be quite connected
to a contemporary Japanese identity and, as it shall be discussed below, Miyazaki’s
anime also has a connection to not only some of Japanese traditions, but also to
several Japanese social and political concepts and to Western culture.8 So in these
animations it again becomes apparent that hybridity, or a Japanese is crucial when
discussing anime in relation to a Japanese cultural identity.
The first part of this thesis shall further elaborate on what is understood about
anime and how it relates to a Japanese cultural identity and how it can be explained
through a ‘Japanese’ form of hybridity. Subsequently there will be a short discussion
on how anime could be analyzed as a product of this hybrid culture. One of the
analytic models proposed by Darrel W. Davis on the analysis of Japanese national
cinema will provide a guideline for analyzing anime because it focuses on how
Japanese film relates to a hybrid Japanese cultural identity instead of defining
Japanese film. It will be useful in the analysis of anime because it might have similar
relations to this Japanese cultural identity. One film scholar who uses this kind of
model as the basis of his research on anime is Thomas Lamarre. He pleads for a
‘relational’ understanding of anime that takes the interconnected structures and
influences in consideration. This will avoid making descriptions of anime on a general
level and allows for further discussions.9 Furthermore the model Davis proposed will
not only become useful in analyzing the animations but also the music, because the
same reasoning. Finally the relation between Miyazaki’s anime and the contemporary
Japanese identity shall be discussed using several examples of Spirited Away and the
analysis of Susan Napier.
It must be emphasized that the quality of Miyazaki’s work owes at least
something to Joe Hisaishi, who composed the scores for all of Miyazaki’s Studio
Ghibli outputs. However unlike the scholarly attention Miyazaki has got by film
7
ibid. p. 29-32.
Napier. Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke. p. 3-14.
9
Lamarre, Thomas. “Between cinema and anime.” Japan Forum 14, no. 2 (2002): 183189.
8
4
theorists as Napier, Hisaishi only gets credit for his work as the composer. Miyazaki
is however not the only director who collaborated with Hisaishi. There is one other
important Japanese director, Takeshi ‘Beat’ Kitano, for whom Hisaishi composed
multiple scores. Yet Hisaishi did not only compose film scores, but also multiple
piano works and concert pieces. His work is known to incorporate many different
genres such as minimalism and electronic music (see for example one of his first
albums MKWAJU (1981) or his scores for Kitano’s A Scene by the Sea (1991) and
Miyazaki’s Nausicaa). And as his career advanced so did his style of composing
started to get more symphonic (see for example his score for Spirited Away and the
symphonic adaptations of other scores).
There are reasons to believe that Hisaishi’s music shows the same kind of
differences as the animations show when compared to Hollywood films. For example
Hisaishi had to rewrite a score once for the US release of Laputa: Castle in the sky
(Miyazaki, 1986, US release 2000), because the original score would make nonJapanese viewers uncomfortable according to the Disney staff.10 This suggests that
the score would have some characteristics that only the Japanese viewer would feel
comfortable with.
Therefore one could assume there are major differences between the scores of
Miyazaki’s animations and the scores of Hollywood animations and live-action
features, yet up until now there is little to no research to be found regarding this
subject. That is why the second part of thesis will shed some light on the importance
Hisaishi’s music by addressing the functions of music in film. Claudia Gorbman is of
the first authors on the subject of the functions of film music and her academic studies
will provide the basis for analyzing the functions of Hisaishi’s music. Gorbman
proposed several principles on how film music in the Hollywood narrative cinema is
used.11 Several of these principals will be used to find a common ground between
music in the films of Hollywood and the music in Miyazaki’s anime.
Most of the analysis will be done on examples from Spirited Away but
examples from other animations directed by Miyazaki, such as Porco Rosso will be
used as well. The analysis of the functions of Hisaishi’s music will be split in two
Osmond, Andrew. “Will The Real Joe Hisaishi Please Stand Up?” AWN | Animation
World Network. http://www.awn.com/mag/issue5.01/5.01pages/osmondhisaishi.php3.
Accessed October 24, 2013.
11
See Gorbman, Claudia. Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music. Bloomington:
Indianna University Press, 1987. p. 73.
10
5
parts in order to discover not only what the music has in common but also what
makes it different from first the Hollywood animations and second the Hollywood
live-action cinema. These similarities and differences will become clear by first of all
analyzing the relations between the music and the visuals in certain scenes and by
analyzing the music itself, by using self-made transcriptions, to find some
compositional properties of the music that are similar of different from the
compositional properties of Hollywood film scores.
The third part will try and provide an explanation for the differences by
focusing upon what several prominent Japanese artists such as composer Toru
Takemitsu and architect Arata Isozaki have called essentially Japanese. The concept
of ‘ma’ is such essential Japanese characteristic, which will be fully explained in this
section, as it is an incredible complex concept. Though ma has been acknowledged by
Western scholars to be of importance Takemitsu’s concert music, yet by analyzing the
relations between Takemitsu’s film music and the image in one of the scenes of Ran
(1985), one of the well know Japanese films by Akira Kurosawa, several elements of
the music can probably be explained by the concept of ma. Subsequently ma may
explain similar elements in Hisaishi’s scores as well and may establish an essential
Japanese quality of the music. And if its not the concept of ma that provides a link
between the scores and the ‘Japaneseness’ of it, there are several other ways to
provide this link that will become apparent after analyzing several musical themes in
Spirited Away. Yet the question remains how strong this connection this link is and
how it relates to the previously mentioned discussion of the link between anime and
this ‘Japaneseness.’
The final part of this thesis will put the entire discussion into a broader context
of cultural identity and explain how it is justified to connect qualities of a cultural
product to a certain nationality. To do so some important trends regarding
globalization discussed by sociologist Roland Robertson such will be addressed and it
will explain how something can be called ‘Japanese.’ Most important of these trends
is the relation between what is called universalism, which roughly means the
homogenization of culture, and particularism, which is the consequence of the will to
distinguish one culture from another. This relation is defined by what Robinson calls
6
glocalism.12 Furthermore there will be some musicological examples of similar cases
of nationality in music to further justify the reference of essential Japanese qualities in
Hisaishi’s scores. Explicitly the case of Russian music, which has been extensively
studied by musicologist Richard Taruskin, will be discussed. This does not mean that
Russian music is the only other case of having an essential national quality, what
Tarusin calls a ‘national substance,’13 but it shows that reference to a certain national
quality in music is not uncommon and even helpful in the analysis of the structure of
a hybrid cultural product.
Chapter 1: Anime with and without a Japanese identity
Ever since the beginning of the 1990’s, Japanese animation, better known by the term
‘anime,’ has become an increasingly significant player in global popular culture. As a
result, it has received more scholarly attention not only in Japan but also in the West.
The term ‘anime’ is mostly used to refer to animation series or films that are created
and produced in Japan, however the term is simply derived from the English word
‘animation’ or the French term ‘dessin animé.’14 Both of these terms basically mean
animated drawings and thus refer to any kind of animated picture of any origin. The
term anime is usually defined however by its origin, hence in practice anime means
animation produced in Japan. This definition allows an easy application of this label
on animated cartoons, even though there are numerous cartoons that are partially
produced outside of Japan and therefore fall inside a gray area. One example is the
television series Alfred J. Kwak (1989–1991) that was co-produced by Dutch, German
and Japanese companies.
However to define anime as animation from Japan does not give credit to the
variety of the different films and series. Anime can be cartoon series for kids (for
example Pokémon), but also full-length movies aimed at a more adult audience.
Western animation, such as Warner Bros.’ Loony Tunes or the movies and shorts by
Disney, are primarily aimed at younger children and are intended to be lighthearted
12
Robertson, Roland. Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture. London: Sage,
1992. p. 97-115.
13
Taruskin, Richard. On Russian Music. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009. p.
27-45.
14
Anime News Network. “Anime.”
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/lexicon.php?id=45. Accessed
September 27, 2013.
7
and comical. Therefore the mainstream Western public often links animation of any
origin with slapstick comedy and ludicrous visual images. Anime differs from
Western animation because it generally does not deal with cartoonish situations.
Instead anime deals with issues that are more commonly found in Western live-action
cinema such as tragedy, romance and psychological or philosophical themes. It covers
almost every cinematographic genre, and anime heroes and villains are often not just
embodiments of good and evil, but have complex personalities.15 This does not mean
that this is true for every anime, nor is every example of Western animation a comical
adventure for children.
A definition of anime cannot be described without mentioning the comic
books and graphic novels produced in Japan called ‘manga.’ Like anime, manga is
incredibly diverse and addresses a wide arrange of interests and audiences (there
appears to be even a category for ex-juvenile delinquent mothers).16 Also like anime it
often exhibits a specific visual style, for example most characters have large eyes and
lipless mouths. One final link between anime and manga is that many popular manga
series get an animated series or movie, yet this is not always the case. In short manga
and anime share many characteristics and the one would probably not exist without
the other in their current forms.17
Anime is definitely a phenomenon of Japanese popular culture. However
anime shows a profound relation to Japanese ‘high’ cultural traditions such as kabuki
and Noh-theatre but also to Japanese religious practices and beliefs. The god-like
spirits in film Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki, 1998) can for example easily be
linked to Shinto religion. Furthermore anime frequently deals with heavy
philosophical and complex themes that are often explored by so-called high culture as
well.18 For example the film Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii, 1995) deals with the
question of what makes us human or the personal suffering of wartime violence in
Japan exemplified in Grave of the Fireflies (Isao Takahata, 1988). In these aspects
anime films don’t differ very much from Japanese live-action cinema. The film Ran
(1985) by Akira Kurosawa, the most successful Japanese director in the West, for
example draws inspiration from Noh-theatre, because of its use of color,
15
Napier. Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke. p. 3-14.
Cavallaro, Dani. The Animé Art of Hayao Miyazaki. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co,
2006. p. 15.
17
Cavallaro. The Animé Art of Hayao Miyazaki. p. 15
18
Many examples of this can be found in: Poitras. The Anime Companion.
16
8
expressionless faces and mannered movements.19 The film also offers a critique to the
bleak theatrical representation of Japanese history in the Japanese period films.20
By the end of the 20th century animation became more important to the
Japanese film industry than live-action cinema, because competing against
Hollywood live action features was getting difficult. Around the same time anime’s
importance within the global cultural economy grew as well and it has even been
called Japan’s ‘chief cultural export.’21 Notable examples of anime’s growing
popularity and impact between the early 1990s and 2000s are the international box
office results for Akira (1988) and Spirited Away (2001). Japanese critic Ueno
Toshiya for instance encountered a mural from Akira on a crumbled wall in the
middle of the destroyed city of Sarajevo in war-torn Serbia so this scene was used as
an icon of political resistance. 22 One more example of the popularity of anime is of
course the Pokémon series that has been aired by many different network stations
around the world, however it should be noted that this popularity also has something
to do with the huge amount merchandizing products and not just the series.23
One anime scholar, Susan Napier, argues that the international popularity of
anime stems from the position it has between national and international cultures.24
Many anime films and series do not only find inspiration in Japanese cultural
traditions but also from Western artistic traditions and techniques of contemporary
cinema. Works of anime are in fact a hybrid product that uses both cross-cultural
elements and aspects from its country of origin. This is one of two reasons why anime
is of any academic significance according to Napier, the second reason is because of
the relation anime has with the Japanese culture:
‘For those interested in Japanese culture, it (anime) is a richly fascinating
contemporary Japanese art form with a distinctive narrative and visual
aesthetic that harks back to traditional Japanese culture and moves forward to
19
Davis, Darrell W. Picturing Japaneseness: Monumental Style, National Identity,
Japanese Film. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. p. 237.
20
Ibid. p. 244.
21
Newitz, Annalee. “Anime otaku: Japanese animation fans outside Japan.” Bad subjects
13 (1994): http://bad.eserver.org/issues/1994/13/newitz.html. Accessed September 28, 2013.
22
Napier. Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke. p. 3-14
23
Tobin, Joseph. Pikachu's global adventure: the rise and fall of Pokémon. Durham: Duke
University Press, 2004. p. 1-11.
24
Ibid. p. 14-34.
9
the cutting edge of art and media. Furthermore, anime, with its enormous
breadth of subject material, it is also a useful mirror on contemporary Japanese
society, offering an array of insights into significant issues, dreams and
nightmares of the day.’25
The works of Japan’s most prominent anime director, Hayao Miyazaki, are a
very good example to illustrate what Napier means. First of all Miyazaki’s settings
vary from the Adriatic Sea and the city of Milan in Porco Rosso (1992) to a small
Japanese village in the countryside in My Neighbor Totoro (1990) and to various
fantasy worlds that have been based on either European looking architecture in
Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) or Japanese temples and bathhouses in Spirited Away.
Secondly the central themes and issues handled in most of Miyazaki’s films hold
international relevance and often offer thought to provoke critiques on these issues.
The most prominent of these themes are the uneasy relationship between human
technology and society versus nature and the ever-present phantom of war.26 Though
these issues are the major themes in Miyazaki’s oeuvre some issues Miyazaki uses in
his films are also very much related to the Japanese culture instead of a global culture.
The most important example is the ambiguity and purity of the Japanese national
identity addressed in his internationally most successful movie: Spirited Away.27
As many critics and scholars point out however that even if there is a
connection to be found between anime and Japanese culture, the animated features
often lack the positive association with the cultural features of Japan or with the ideas
of a, most likely stereotyped, Japanese way of life. This is what cultural theorist
Koichi Iwabuchi describes as ‘culturally odorless’.28 A cultural odor is not an
association of the product with its origins based upon the knowledge it is ‘made in
Japan,’ but the cultural odor becomes apparent when the image of the contemporary
lifestyle of Japan (in this case) comes to mind. The typically Japanese festivals
(matsuri), kabuki theater and religious Shinto practices do ‘reek’ of (an essentialized
view of) Japaneseness. However anime, but also Japanese computer games and
25
Ibid. p. 8.
Cavallaro. The Animé Art of Hayao Miyazaki. p. 7.
27
Napier, Susan J. “Matter Out of Place: Carnival, Containment, and Cultural Recovery in
Miyazaki's Spirited Away.” The Journal of Japanese Studies 32, no. 2 (2006): 287-310.
28
Iwabuchi. Recentering Globalization: Popular Culture and Japanese Transnationalism.
p. 27.
26
10
Japanese consumer technologies do not seek to sell a Japanese way of life and
therefore do not invoke these images.29
The lack of a cultural odor, Japanese or any other kind, is also a result from
the settings many anime films use. The films Akira (1988) and Nausicaa of the Valley
of the Wind (Miyazaki, 1984) for instance offer versions of apocalyptic worlds and
the anime series Space Battleship Yamato (Leiji Matsumoto, 1974-1975) takes place
in outer space. Of course there are also anime films that do display many Japanese
characteristics such as My Neighbor Totoro (Miyazaki, 1988) and Spirited Away
(2001), but even these two films are mostly played out on fantasy worlds. So these
anime films all have created surroundings that are potentially free from cultural
context. Furthermore it is not only the settings that are free from a cultural context but
also the characters. Many anime characters do not look Japanese at all and sometimes
do not even show any kind of ethnicity. This is of course one of the benefits of
animation in general, because the creators of animation films and series only have to
draw whatever comes to their minds. For this reason some academics, for example
Iwabuchi, also have described anime with the term ‘mukokuseki’ which roughly
translates into ‘nationless’ or ‘stateless.’30 What it means is that anime should not be
related to any national identity at all. Yet this is of course not entirely the case,
because the influences of both Japanese and Western are noticeable.
Although Iwabuchi, among others, specifically describe anime as a product
without national identity or at least without a cultural specific fragrance, the question
remains if the makers deliberately choose to create stateless fantasy worlds and
culturally odorless products. There are however some animators who, like Iwabuchi,
believe that anime films have no national identity. Mamoru Oshii for example,
famous for his works Ghost in the Shell (1995) and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence
(2004), believes that animators unconsciously create non-Japanese characters because
they wish to draw internationally attractive characters. Furthermore many animators
never really experienced the essential qualities of traditional Japanese values and
instead they create their own world that is distinctive from Japan but also from the
rest of the world. However at the same time their creations are products from a
29
Featherstone, Mike. Undoing Culture: Globalization, Postmodernism and Identity.
London: Sage Publications, 1995. p. 9.
30
Iwabuchi, Recentering Globalization. p. 29-32.
11
country that incorporates both essences.31 In other words they do not deliberately
reject either the Western or the Japanese cultures to create their own identity, but at
the same time they show Japanese and non-Japanese essences together and so create a
culturally hybrid product.
Furthermore Oshii believes along with other animators and critics that anime
is an expression or even a reflection of the Japanese contemporary cultural identity.32
This comment is exactly the same as one of Napier’s reasons to study anime. Again
the reason behind this belief is that anime is a hybrid form of art based upon Western
and Japanese cultural aspects, yet it is not dominated by either. These claims are
indeed plausible because the Japanese culture is, just like any other national culture, a
hybrid. However this kind of hybridity is not exactly the same as Bhabha’s original
concept of hybridity, which is based upon colonial power and cultural enforcement.33
It is rather a hybridity of equalizing cultural forces and therefore leans more towards
how Iwabuchi describes hybridity in a Japanese context.
Iwabuchi defines this Japanese kind of hybridity by focusing on the ability of
Japan to domesticate the foreign. This is a process that according to Iwabuchi goes
beyond Homi Bhabha’s process of hybridization, because Japan strategically borrows
from other cultures.34 This ‘strategic hybridism’ is an act of self-representation and is
an attempt to control Japan’s own identity instead of being controlled by the West.
Besides that it is because of the threat of foreign dominance that these foreign
influences must be managed.35 This hybridism differs from hybridization because
hybridism is based upon assimilation of culture, while hybridization stresses the
ambiguity of cultural difference. Iwabuchi calls this a fluid essentialism in which
‘identity is represented as a sponge that is constantly absorbing foreign cultures
without changing its essence and wholeness.’36 In other words, according to Iwabuchi
there exists a core identity that cannot be changed, but foreign influences cannot be
ignored because all cultures, including the Japanese, are a result of constant cultural
31
Oshii has stated this in an interview in 1996 for a Japanese magazine. The original
article can be found in Oshii, Mamoru, Ueno Toshiya, and Ito Kazunori. "Eigo to wa jitsu wa
animeshon datta." Eureka 28, no. 9 (1996): 50-81. This interview is cited in both Napier,
Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke and Iwabuchi, Recentering Globalization.
32
Napier. Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke. p. 24.
33
Bhabha, Homi. K. The Location of Culture. p. 1-27.
34
Iwabuchi. Recentering Globalization. p. 53.
35
Ivy, Marilyn. Discourses of the Vanishing Modernity, Phantasm, Japan. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1995. p. 3-4.
36
Iwabuchi. Recentering Globalization. p. 54.
12
borrowing. However the origins of these influences are oppressed to fit them in the
Japanese culture.
However with anime this kind of oppression also works the other way around.
Anime has indeed the potential to be culturally odorless and this aspect returns in the
mukokuseki quality of the settings and characters. On the other hand there are aspects
that are closely related to the country of origin and the beliefs of the Japanese people.
Though neither of these influences takes the upper hand in the plot or the visuals of
many anime, it is still arguable that anime does not portray any ‘Japanese way of life’
as the products main interest. But as Oshii already has commented in an interview,
these negotiations between cultural fragrances could very well directly reflect the
contemporary ‘Japanese way of life.’
A model to analyze anime
The previous comment still needs some nuances for it to become more acceptable. To
view any Japanese film as a direct reflection of the Japanese lifestyle is, according to
film scholar Darrel W. Davis, one of three different models for Japanese national
cinema to relate to Japanese culture and is called the reflectionist model. It basically
means that the film directly reflects the Japanese cultural identity because the film is a
product of that culture.37 This is a difficult model to work with because there is no
guarantee that what the viewer perceives is in fact the same as what they would
perceive when living in Japan. On the contrary, movies can easily create a
romanticized or stereotyped image. Furthermore it is not clear whether anime series
reflect Japanese culture or if people just start to think this way about Japanese culture
because of what anime portrays. Then there is also the problem with who makes the
film; the director would portray his or her own version of a Japanese agency.
The second model is a dialogic model and it focuses on the relation Japanese
cinema has with Western cinema (Hollywood). Within this model there are two
different angles to look upon Japanese cinema though. One focuses on differences and
the other on similarities between Japan and the West. Davis uses the works of Noël
Burch and David Bordwell/Kirstin Thompson to exemplify these views. For the film
scholar Burch Japanese national cinema is an opposite of Western cinema because it
Davis, Darrell W. “Reigniting Japanese Tradition with Hana-Bi.” Cinema Journal 40,
no. 4 (2001): 55-80.
37
13
is influenced by Japanese traditional conventions, which pose a critical attitude to
Western aesthetics.38 The point of view Davis writes about does not focus upon the
differences but on the similarities between Japanese film and Hollywood. Film
theorists Bordwell and Thompson describe in their work how it would be impossible
for Japanese director Ozu Yasujiro to use his experimental style and techniques
without knowledge of Western cinema conventions and techniques.39
The focus in both angles lies on a single point and therefore cannot form a
complete picture on what Japanese cinema means within its cultural context. Though
together they seem to indicate the complexity of the Japanese culture and its products,
because both Burch as Bordwell and Thompson claims do not necessarily exclude
each other. The fact that they both find evidence in the same movies of the same
director to back up their claims rather supports the ideas that both can be true. In other
words these movies are constructed using both Western and Japanese traditions,
cinematographic styles and aesthetics and neither of these influences are more
important than the other. Furthermore it shows that Japanese national cinema indeed
has a connection to Western cinema and discussing Japanese cinema without this
connection would be undesirable.
This all comes together in the third model Davis proposes to approach
Japanese cinema with, which is called the contamination model. Any culture is
constructed with bits and pieces from inside or outside national borders. Furthermore
nationality only becomes relevant when there is difference to be pointed out. This is
however a relative difference and not a dialectic difference. It states that films are not
a direct reflection of culture, nor is there a dialectical relation between cinemas and
cultures. For Davis it is ‘both of these, a reflection and a dialogue, plus the next stage
in its evolution.’40 Again this is a plea for the hybrid nature of cultural products in
which there is no absolute nationality, but instead it is a patchwork of influences.
Japanese cinema therefore does not directly reflect the Japanese culture, but instead it
is more a reflection of a global culture with a national origin. Thus when analyzing
films the focus needs to lie upon the relations it has with locale and foreign culture on
various levels.
38
Ibid. p. 63.
Ibid. p. 64.
40
Ibid. p. 65.
39
14
With this in mind, there may be some truth to Oshii’s remarks on the Japanese
cultural identity. Even though anime does not necessarily reflect the Japanese identity,
it does shed light on how a part of this identity is constructed. Like Davis argued it is
a patchwork or a mixture of cultural influences. But by searching for how and where
the different influences are used and how they are related gives us information on the
possible construction of the Japanese identity. This means that anime has to be
approached from a relational point of view rather than establishing a singular meaning
of the subject. It is what Thomas Lamarre refers to as a ‘relational’ understanding that
theorizes the relations between cinema and anime or animation and anime.41 In other
words there is no way to define and specify what anime is just as it is impossible to
define a single definitive Japanese culture because of the hybrid nature of both.
According to Lamarre thinking in relations is much more effective as it takes this
hybridity in consideration and allows for a more complete understanding of anime.42
For the understanding of anime music this method will be useful as well because it
may or may not have similar relations to a Japanese cultural identity as anime and of
course because it too is a mixture of cultural influences.
Miyazaki’s worlds and the Japanese identity
Similar to Oshii’s beliefs are some of the ideas of Western anime researchers. Susan
Napier for example examines the movie Spirited Away (2001) as a representation of
Japan’s current cultural position within the global culture and as a way to reinforce
some boundaries between Japan’s and the global cultural identity.43 On the surface
Miyazaki’s films exemplify the hybrid identity of Japan that is discussed above. The
settings vary from European locations such as the Adriatic Sea and Milan during the
rise of fascism in Porco Rosso (1992) to Miyazaki’s version of fourteenth-century
Japan in Princess Mononoke (1997). His stories, settings and themes are intertwined
with two very important aspects of a Japanese cultural identity: ‘kokusaika’ (meaning
internationalization) and ‘furusato’ (literally native place).44 This is one reason to
believe that Miyazaki’s oeuvre could tell us more about a Japanese identity.
Lamarre. “Between cinema and anime.” p. 183-189.
Ibid. p. 186-187.
43
Napier. “Matter Out of Place.” p. 287.
44
Ibid. p. 288.
41
42
15
Kokusaika is an important aspect of a Japanese identity because it is closely
associated with the opening up of Japan to the world and with the incorporation of
Western culture. There is however a lack of consensus on what kokusaika actually
means for the construction of a Japanese identity. The lack of consensus is most likely
the result of the use of the concept to describe slightly different trends in different
decades, in other words the meaning of kokusaika shifts with the passage of time.
This has probably to do with the multiple times Japan had to open up their borders to
the Western world since the beginning of the so-called Meiji period (1868-1912). To
successfully adapt however, Japan needed to change the secluded nature of its society,
which obviously stemmed from its geographical position as an island and a 250-year
period of cultural isolation during the Tokugawa period (1603–1868).45
For some academics the term kokusaika describes another trend as well,
namely the spread of the Japanese culture throughout the world.46 The opening up of
the Japanese boundaries also meant that Japanese culture could be, or according to
some researchers had to be, exported. Edward Said, though only briefly mentioning
Japan and not using the term kokusaika in his book Culture and Imperialism, claims
for example that because of the internationalization Japan became a major economic
power, but at the same time it became culturally dominated by the West.47 This means
that Western culture was a threat to the Japanese cultural integrity and by spreading
Japanese values their cultural heritage was better protected.48
What is this Japanese cultural heritage then? This could best be described by
another term, furusato. Furusato literally means old village and can be associated with
conservatism and tradition, but like the term kokusaika, it is not so easily defined.
Although the protection of what is believed to be traditional Japanese culture against
the Western culture plays a role in the definition of furusato, for Robertson it also
means a reduction of a Japanese cultural identity and to a feeling of nostalgia to this
ancient place that in reality is not there anymore.49 Furusato can in this way be
45
Itoh, Mayumi. Globalization of Japan: Japanese Sakoku Mentality and U.S. Efforts to
Open Japan. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998. p. 23-35.
46
Ivy, Marilyn. Discourses of the Vanishing. p. 3.
47
Said, Edward W. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Knopf, 1993. p. 329-330.
48
Burgess, Chris. “Maintaining Identities: Discourses of Homogeneity in a Rapidly
Globalizing Japan.” electronic journal of contemporary japanese studies 4, no. 1 (2004):
http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/articles/Burgess.html. Accessed September 25, 2013.
49
Robertson, J. “Empire of Nostalgia: Rethinking `Internationalization' in Japan Today.”
Theory Culture & Society 14, no. 4 (1997): 97-122.
16
explained as a self-essentialization of Japan and it is driven by the will to distinguish
Japanese culture from Western culture and thus Japan presents itself as the ‘other’ by
focusing upon archaic Japanese cultural traditions and values to make this distinction.
The cultural expressions that can be associated with the concept of furusato are for
example Japanese festivals (matsuri), religious Shinto music and dance (kagura),
kabuki and Noh-theatre and music. These are all believed to be typically Japanese
cultural expressions because some were once, during the Tokugawa period for
example, a great part of the Japanese society, although that does not mean these
practices are exactly the same nowadays as they were in the past. They are most likely
reinvented and even used as tourist attractions, so it is highly debatable whether these
expressions represent a Japanese identity as a whole.50
Nevertheless this self-essentialization of Japan clearly plays a role within
Japanese cultural export products such as Miyazaki’s anime films, by picturing
Japaneseness using these examples of furusato. For example the spirits or gods from
the bathhouse in Spirited Away and from the forest in Princess Mononoke are a clear
reference to Shintoism. The latter film also uses some presumably Japanese customs,
such as the cutting of the protagonist hair, signifying a permanent departure from the
clan, and features the samurai warriors and architecture from the Japanese medieval
times.
Another reason to examine Miyazaki’s work is because of its popularity. In
Japan Miyazaki’s popularity is comparable to Spielberg’s popularity in Hollywood,
but internationally Miyazaki has also received much critical acclaim.51 His movie
Spirited Away won an Academy Award in 2002 for example and his following film
Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) was nominated in 2005. His international success was
also due to a deal Miyazaki’s production studio made with Disney to export his work
to the US. Though due to the fact that his animations are fundamentally different from
Western animation, his popularity among the general Western public is not yet that
great, but at the same time many people within the Hollywood film industry, for
example, have acknowledged to be great admirers of his work.52
50
Ibid. p. 106.
Cavallaro. The Animé Art of Hayao Miyazaki. p.5-7.
52
Ibid. p. 5.
51
17
It is safe to assume that Spirited Away is Miyazaki’s best-known work, but it
is also one of the most culturally ambiguous works.53 The story revolves around a girl
(Chihiro) who is on the way to her new home with her parents. They never get there
in the film because they are wound up in what they think is an abandoned theme park.
The theme park is actually a gateway to the spirit world and Chihiro becomes trapped
within while her parents turned into pigs. In order to survive and ultimately escape
with her parents Chihiro must work in a magical bathhouse for the spirits. Most
inhabitants of the spirit world react very xenophobic and hostile to this intrusion, but
some supporting characters do help her to return their world successfully.
There is an obvious relation between both the story and the setting and a
Japanese cultural identity. At first glance the bathhouse seems to be based on
Japanese history and tradition, it is an object of furusato. The bathhouse very much
looks like a Shinto temple (though Chinese and Western elements are also found in
the environment) and because of its function also symbolizes Japanese kind of
cleansing and purity. Furthermore during the film the bathhouse deals with multiple
intrusions polluting elements, such as a human stench, blood, a river spirit tainted
with human waste and a spirit that corrupts the workers in the bathhouse. If the
bathhouse symbolizes Japanese purity then these elements represent foreign societies
and their negative influences; greed for example can easily be connected to the
Western neo-liberalist economy and politics.54 This is however nothing but a simple
exploration of the superficial meaning of the film.
The bathhouse as a representation of Japanese tradition is, according to
Napier, not so simple because of its liminality. The bathhouse lays within some
fantasy world and this suggests that it is not so much a representative of furusato but
more of an estranged Japanese traditional culture, which it should represent. Yet at the
same time this world is easily accessible.55 This does not mean however that the
bathhouse is not still strongly linked to furusato. Even Chihiro seems to take up a
liminal and culturally ambiguous position. She is forced to discard her original
identity and has to pass some difficult tasks to construct a new identity, which she
needs to survive and leave the bathhouse and the spirit world (though at the same time
Napier. “Matter Out of Place.” p.288.
Ibid. p. 290.
55
Ibid. p. 294.
53
54
18
she is being reminded not to lose her old identity entirely).56 Her original identity (and
that of her parents) exemplifies the current Japanese cultural identity, which has
become more Western, materialistic and has almost lost touch with the more
traditional values (Chihiro’s difficulty to adapt to the spirit world shows this for
instance). In the end however it is not clear whether she has fully changed and
accepted her new identity. Her new hair tie is proof of her trails in the fantasy world
but her behavior mirrors her behavior in the opening scene.57
There is much more to say about the liminality of the plot, setting and
characters, but the important part is that this liminality perfectly fits within the
cultural ambiguity or hybridity of Japan and the statelessness anime can create. The
film shows the relation between the Japanese and the foreign by signifying difference
and by showing how the contemporary Japanese identity is influenced by foreign
elements. But at the same time it shows that the traditional values are not forgotten
and that the Japanese are able to connect with it in a way. Furthermore the liminal
elements work very well with the concept of animation. For Napier animation itself is
suggestive of a liminal state clearly distinguished from reality.58 Yet this liminalty
could easily translate into mukokuseki, which means the quality of not being related
to a national identity. Miyazaki presents his characters, surroundings and reasons for
his characters to act in a way that they are not bound to any national essence. The role
music plays in this presentation is however completely ignored by Napier.
Chapter 2: Anime music and the scores of Hollywood
In fact in most of the anime research the music is ignored, but this does not mean that
the music does not add anything at all to the meaning of the film. On the contrary it is
an essential part of almost any film as a whole. This does not only mean that music
should be part of an analysis of film but also that, as film music scholar Claudia
Gorman puts it, the successful evaluation of the effectiveness of music in film
requires film music to be analyzed in the context of the entire film. Meaning the
visual and narrative elements need to be taken into account.59
56
Ibid. p. 298.
Ibid. p. 309.
58
Ibid. p. 295.
59
Gorbman. Unheard Melodies: Narrative Film Music. p. 12.
57
19
This is especially true in music for animated films. Anime is in its essence an
animated cartoon and anime music also shares some of the characteristics of Western
cartoon music. Even though Western cartoons are often more comical and ludicrous
than the anime that are discussed above, anime still remains a cartoon that, by
definition, ‘can do things that we cannot (or should not) do and the music exaggerates
and celebrates that difference.’60 Furthermore because animation is also inherently
unreal and the character’s emotions lack vitality and therefore believability, it needs
music to add this.61 This would mean that the music predominantly functions as a
signifier of emotion, specifically the character’s emotions and that it adds life to the
characters.
It is however unwise to generalize the functions of anime music since we
cannot speak of anime as a specific genre, so are the functions of anime music not
always the same. But what an analysis of one of the anime scores can tell us is how it
fits within the movie and how this is different (or not at all) from other Hollywood or
cartoon scores. Subsequently it can either reinforce the earlier statements about the
statelessness of anime and the cultural hybrid nature of the Japanese culture or
question these claims. This is forgotten in one of the articles on anime music by Milo
Miles. He states that the works of Joe Hisaishi (composer for all of Miyazaki’s films)
is ‘not conducive to radical thoughts about music,’62 because the music is like many
other anime scores ‘surprisingly formulaic, old-fashioned, soppy and stiff when
played without the visuals.’63 This latter statement is indeed true for the music in
Miyazaki’s films. Hisaishi’s lush melodies and romantic scores often sound very
appealing, but most of them are not at all complex. But because it is music to
accompany a film it does not have to be complex. Furthermore film music often uses
the visuals to become meaningful in any way and therefore Miles’ statement does not
mean anything.
Even though music in anime has to add emotion into the drawings just like the
music in Western cartoons, the similarities between the anime scores by Hisaishi and
cartoon scores by Carl Stalling or Scott Bradly are scarce. Just like anime differs from
60
Goldmark, Daniel, and Yuval Taylor. The Cartoon Music Book. Chicago, Ill: A
Cappella, 2002. p. xiv.
61
Ibid. p. xiv.
62
Miles, Milo. “Robots, Romance and Ronin: Music in Japanese Anime.” In The Cartoon
Music Book. 219-224. p. 221.
63
Ibid. p. 219.
20
Western cartoons in terms of themes and issues the medium uses, the music could
also be considered more serious instead of what could be called cartoonish. For Edith
Lang and George West this cartoonish quality is associated with the ability the music
has (or should have) to ‘mock’ emotional cues and to celebrate the unreality of the
cartoon.64 Furthermore cartoon music often follows and exaggerates movement and
actions happening on screen (mickey-mousing), which has been done since the silent
film era.65 This also shows the importance of visual cues in cartoons.
However when looking at (and listening to) one of the scenes from Miyazaki’s
Porco Rosso (1992) the music does none of the above. After 67 minutes the
protagonist, an Italian pilot who left the Air Force after WWI and for unknown
reasons turned into an anthropomorphic pig, begins to tell a story about his past.
When he starts to recall the last summer of the war a piano starts playing a simple but
touching melody (see the appendix 1.1 for my own transcription of this melody). The
melody is played slowly and expressively using high register notes and softly
accompanied by strings. The image however shows planes in the sky fighting each
other and apart from some engine sounds there are no other sound effects like
shooting or planes being blown up. Instead there is only music that does not reflect
the action, but it reflects Porco’s saddened psychological state because he lost all his
friends during that fight and he was the sole survivor.
A similar example can be found in Spirited Away (2001) at 48 minutes into the
film. This time there is not much happening on screen. The protagonist (Chihiro) just
got to see her parents for the first time after they were transformed into pigs.
Afterwards she sits down and has a conversation with a boy Haku, one of the few
people who want to help her, and again a piano is heard playing the main theme of the
film accompanied by strings. The music itself is thus quite similar to the previous
example, but not only because of its instrumentation. Again the theme is played
slowly and expressively, especially at the moment Chihiro starts crying and has to
recognize her fate when the theme again uses high register notes. The music does not
try to mock her sadness using clichés, but instead the music uses certain musical
conventions (slow tempo, high pitches on the piano, strings) to make the viewer
Lang, Edith, and George West. “Animated cartoons and Slap-Stick Comedy.” In The
Cartoon Music Book. 17-20. p.18.
65
Cooke, Mervyn. A History of Film Music. New York: Cambridge University Press,
2008. p. 289.
64
21
believe she is genuinely sad. So the music in both examples has the ability to provide
the psychological subtext, which is often harder to accomplish in dialogue or visually.
But this quality is more associated with music in live-action films than in cartoons.66
Even though anime is often unreal and therefore could be considered
nationless from a visual aspect, the psychological states and subsequently the reasons
behind the character’s actions are more real, or at least they try to be by using music
to add subtext. But this is not at all surprising when considering the view of Miyazaki
on his own work. He never creates truly good or truly evil characters for example,
mainly because there are no truly good or truly evil persons in reality. Everyone has
their own reasons for the way they act, which are neither good nor bad.67 So even
though the characters are visually not bound to reality, the emotions and actions are
bound to reality and the music is used to convey this.
This does not mean that the music in Miyazaki’s films has nothing in common
with Western cartoon music. First of all Western cartoons do not always have to use
music only to mock emotions, because Western cartoons can be as diverse as anime
and thus use music in the same way as discussed above. Secondly, anime music is not
always used to provide the psychological subtext, but is used to mimic movements by
‘mickey-mousing,’ which is a typical function in Western cartoons. In Spirited Away
for example when Haku instructs Chihiro to use the stairs outside of the bathhouse to
the boiler room in order to survive, music accompanies her when going down the
stairs. The music starts when she slowly climbs down the stairs mimicking her first
steps and facial movements. Eventually she slips and has to run down crashing into a
wall abruptly stopping the music. This of course adds a bit more comedy to the
otherwise serious film.
Miyazaki sometimes also uses some sound effects accompanying a character’s
movements in the same manner as Western cartoons. Although this technique is used
way more frequently in the films that are clearly more aimed at a younger audience.
For example the film My Neighbor Totoro (1988), which revolves around two young
girls that moved to a new house in the countryside while their mother lies in a
66
Karlin, Fred. Listening to Movies: The Film Lover's Guide to Film Music. New York:
Schirmer Books, 1994. p. 83.
67
Miyazaki, Hayao. “Interview Miyazaki on Mononoke-hime.” Translated by Ryoko
Toyama. Theatre Program, July 1997.
http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/interviews/m_on_mh.html. Accessed September 28, 2013.
22
hospital. The youngest stumbles upon two small unfamiliar creatures and decides to
follow them into the nearby woods. Eventually she falls down a hole in a tree (of
course an obvious reference to Alice in Wonderland) and into the lair of a giant
version of the creatures. When she approaches the beast, she pokes him twice and
these pokes are accompanied by two simple sounds. These sounds are surprisingly
recognizable as ‘poking sounds’ because they are comparable to the sounds used to
illustrate these kinds of gestures in cartoons like Tom and Jerry.
These kind sound effects are however more of an exception than a rule. It is
obvious that in the most films a lot of attention went into the careful selection of
realistic sound effects. For example the sounds of Chihiro running through various
places in the bathhouse on her bare feet are carefully selected on what type of ground
she is running. The wooden floors of the bathhouse give a dull stump while the soft
cushion-like floor in the room next to Yubaba’s office gives a muted sound. These
detailed sound effects are somewhat rare in Western cartoons.
Anime and the music of Hollywood’s live-action cinema
Though there are some elements in the music of Miyazaki’s films that obviously
inspired by Western cartoon music, the majority of the music is more closely related
to the Hollywood scores.68 One of the functions of anime music is to add
psychological subtext to the film, which is more associated with Hollywood liveaction cinema. But there are many different theories about the Hollywood film scores
that offer many different functions of music in cinema. Many of these functions are
also applicable to the Hisaishi’s scores. One clear example is the musical style and the
orchestration of the scores, especially in Miyazaki’s later works. Many of the themes
in Princess Mononoke (1996), Spirited Away (2001) and Howl’s Moving Castle
(2003) for example are presented by a late Romantic orchestra, which according to
Claudia Gorbman can trigger an epic feeling and can make the characters bigger than
68
Even though there is no such thing as a general type of Hollywood score, many scores
from classic and contemporary Hollywood films adhere to similar rules and principals in
relation to the narrative, setting or moods. These are discussed at length in multiple books
such as: Gorbman. Unheard Melodies, or Kassabian, Anahid. Hearing Film: Tracking
Identifications in Contemporary Hollywood Film Music. New York: Routledge, 2001.
23
life. 69 This function is of course very suitable for animation in general, because it
often lacks ‘life.’
Furthermore the music is also often used merely as background music and also
follows Gorbmans principle of the ‘inaudibility’ of music.70 The majority of
Miyazaki’s animated features also do not have any kind of diegetic music. One of the
few exceptions is Porco Rosso (1992) in which the French chanson ‘Le Temp des
cerises’ is first heard on a radio and is later sung in a bar. It is notable that this is also
one of the very few times Miyazaki used a pre-written song instead of letting Hisaishi
write his own music. Yet most of the music Hisaishi writes is often used to
underscore a character’s emotion and thus does not have an identified source. But this
does not mean of course that the music is non-diegetic as any music underscoring a
character’s emotion is easy to place in the ‘fantastical gap’ between diegetic and nondiegetic music.71 The inaudibility of the music is however perfectly suited for what
could be called metadiegetic music.72
One example of this metadiegetic music is the main theme of Spirited Away,
which is used in the film multiple times and it sometimes serves to illustrate a
characters emotions. But the entire theme itself adheres to this inaudibility, mainly
because of its simplicity. During the opening scene the theme can be structured into
several sections after the opening chords: AA’BCC’DD’. The two D sections
however do not return when the main theme returns in the movie and other themes or
previous sections take its place instead (see the appendix 1.2 for my own transcription
of the opening theme).
The first two A sections consist of no more that two related motives
accompanied by stacked fourths first played by synthesizers but during the A’ section
strings take over accompanying the melody on the piano. The melody and the
underlying stacked fourths are tonally ambiguous giving the music the freedom to go
anywhere it wants. This sense of freedom is in this way very useful for music to be
inaudible because it means that it is not bound to solve chords to the tonic for
example in a tonal structure. However there are limits to this freedom because the
69
Gorbman. Unheard Melodies. p. 81.
Gorbman. Unheard Melodies. p. 76-79.
71
Stilwell, Robynn “The Fantastical Gap Between Diegetic and Nondiegetic.” In Beyond
the Soundtrack: Representing Music in Cinema, edited by.Daniel Goldmark, Lawrence
Kramer, and Richard Leppert. 184-202. (Berkeley:University of California Press, 2007).
72
Gorbman. Unheard Melodies. p. 23.
70
24
music would be drawing too much attention and creating inappropriate moods when it
deliberately avoids tonality. Though atonal music is often found in Western cartoons
or Western film-noir cinema,73 Miyazaki’s anime films generally tries to portray
moods that are not associated with these genres.
The sweeping strings in the A’ section eventually do bring a sense of stability
right before the melody intensifies in the B section. The motives in the B, C and C’
sections again are very simple and closely related to the previous motives. The
melody during these and previous sections uses many repetitive notes together with
sustained ones. The simplicity of the melody makes it also possible to stop the music
at almost any given time without distracting the audience because the music never
really creates expectations. For example the music technically stops halfway the first
measure of the C’ sections at about 51 minutes in the film. In short the musical
structure is very adaptable and it can easily be called elastic or extensile.74
Other principles that according to Gorbman are often found in the classical
Hollywood scores are also found in the scores of Hisaishi for Miyazaki’s films. One
of these is unity and again the main theme of Spirited Away can be regarded as a good
example. During the move the main theme is heard a total of four times but each time
the orchestration and structure slightly varies. For example the D sections are replaced
and the melodies are sometimes played by a piano and sometimes by an orchestra.
The repetition of the theme suggests it could function as a motive for remembrance,
however this motive is not associated with a character but rather with some important
plot points.
The main theme opens the film when Chihiro and her parents are driving
towards their new home. This can be considered as the beginning of a new adventure,
although neither the characters nor the viewer has any idea what this adventure might
be. The second time the theme returns is when Chihiro has to accept her situation and
needs to go to work in the bathhouse in order to survive. The third time the theme
returns is when Chihiro decides to go Zeniba, the twin sister of Yubaba who is the
owner of the bathhouse, to return a special seal and to remove the curse cast on the
boy Haku. The theme returns one final time near the end when Chihiro is finally able
to go home after she has saved her parents. Repeating these recognizable melodies
73
74
Cook. A History of Film Music p. 287-303.
Gorbman. Unheard melodies. p. 76.
25
just before or right on specific narrative points therefore aids in the construction of
narrative unity.
Though as established, the melodies return in slight variations and these
variations are perhaps determined by the psychological subtext they should represent.
The timid piano melody, as discussed before, serves to illustrate Chihiro’s sadness.
Yet by the time the theme recurs for the third time Chihiro no longer seems to be
afraid and she has fully adapted to her surroundings. She has matured and this is also
reflected in the orchestration because the melody in the B section is now played by
French horns instead of piano, creating a more stable and bolder sound. Hisaishi
apparently makes these choices in orchestration very consciously, because in an
interview he states that he tries to discern what the director is trying to convey in a
scene and then to do the same with the music thematically.75
In another interview Hisaishi makes a statement about the difference between
his scores and those of Hollywood composers. ‘The Hollywood style of using music
to introduce characters and explain what's on screen is a method that I don't normally
use in Japan.’76 However when looking at the score of Spirited Away this in only
partly true. The previous examples show that Hisaishi’s music indeed hardly ever
mimics the action on screen or uses physical cues and that it is mostly used to
illustrate a characters mood or psychological state. Furthermore most characters in
Spirited Away do not have a theme attached to them to introduce them on screen.
There is however one character, called Kaonashi (No Face in the translation), that
does have a specific motive that is heard every time he makes an appearance before
Chihiro goes to Zeniba. Kaonashi is a mysterious spirit who uses Chihiro to sneak
into the bathhouse. Before he enters the bathhouse he is seen multiple times, though
only briefly. However each time a very short percussive motive is heard often in
between or during other musical themes. For example the second time the main theme
returns the D sections are replaced by a short transition that prepares to return to the B
section. During this transition Kaonashi appears and walking on the bridge for no
more than a second or two before he disappears. At the moment he appears the small
theme is heard played by what sounds like a gamelan type of instrument.
Osmond. “Will The Real Joe Hisaishi Please Stand Up?”
Hisaishi, Joe. “Castle in the Sky - Joe Hisaishi Interview.” Team Ghiblink.
http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/laputa/interview.html. Accessed October 20, 2013.
75
76
26
This theme fully expands during a confrontation between Chihiro and
Kaonashi about 92 minutes into the film when Kaonashi has become a malevolent
entity. This time East Asian percussion instruments like gongs and Taiko drums
accompany the short motive, which keeps returning in an unpredictable manner.
Eventually string pizzicatos start accompanying theme and when Kaonashi starts to
go in a rampage while vomiting, the theme accelerates and brass instruments start
playing. When Kaonashi starts spitting some of the bathhouse employees he ate, he
begins to move more slowly and the brass instruments stop playing. The fast tempo is
maintained but the instrumentation suggests that Kaonashi starts to calm down as
well. In other words the music again is used to illustrate the characters psychological
state. Also notable is that although Kaonashi is seen in almost every scene after this
the theme never returns. A possible explanation can be found in Hisaishi’s statement
that he tries to convey what Miyazaki meant, because at this moment in the film
Kaonashi has become friends with Chihiro. He is no longer a stranger or a malicious
being and it is in fact possible that the theme is not connected to the character but to
the current status of the character in relation to Chihiro.
In short the score of Spirited Away contains many elements that are also found
in the classic Hollywood scores. But at the same time Hisaishi seems to avoid some
Hollywood conventions by scoring the characters moods instead the characters
themselves or the actions on screen. Hisaishi also ignores many narrative or visual
cues in favor of musical continuity whereas Western composers probably would adapt
their music at these points. For example at seventy-two minutes in the film the music
does not start at the moment Haku appears in his dragon form but a second later.
Furthermore the moment the horns start playing and the moment the camera switches
to a close-up image of the action are not timed together, but also are a split second
apart.
There are more of these examples of timing in the film, but also in other
Miyazaki films there are numerous examples. Most notable is the timing in the first
scenes of the Japanese version of Laputa (1986). One of the protagonists, Sheeta, falls
from the sky, but before she hits the ground her necklace starts glowing violently and
she begins to descent slowly. During the production of this film Hisaishi has ignored
this visual cue and he brought the music to a climax a few seconds earlier. However
when Disney produced the film for American audiences, Hisaishi had to rewrite most
of the score. First of all he had to extend the length of the score by more that thirty
27
minutes because Disney believed the American audience was used to hear more
music in animated features.77 Hisaishi completely rewrote the score for the American
release and as a result the music also adapts to the visual cues. The music in the
opening scene for example climaxes at the exact same moment the necklace glows.
Laputa is however the only anime by Miyazaki that got an entire new score for the
American release. All the other movies only got new voices and sometimes an
English version of the opening theme or ending credits theme. The fact remains that
most of the movie scores do not adhere to the Hollywood conventions of visual cues.
Instead Hisiashi music also follows a path on its own, rather than following along
with the visuals.
Chapter 3: Finding ‘Japaneseness’
So the functions of music in Miyazaki’s work are not that much different from the
functions music has in classic Hollywood movies. Yet it is also clear that Hisaishi
first of all does not wish to follow every Hollywood conventions and that he is indeed
successful in avoiding some of them. But next to the issue of timing, there are more
differences between Hisaishi’s scores and those of Hollywood films. These
differences are important, because according to Davis’ contamination model
nationality becomes relevant when there is difference to be pointed out. This does not
mean that every score that does not follow Hollywood conventions is always an
example of non-Western national cinema. But some of the differences between the
classical Hollywood scores and Hisaishi’s scores might be explained by the fact it is a
product of a Japanese culture. In other word these difference can point to a kind of
‘Japaneseness.’
As it is already discussed the search for Japaneseness has been a major
influence on Japanese cultural expressions and it has been summed up by the term
furusato. Even though furusato is one of the catchwords within contemporary
Japanese society the will to distinct itself from the West and the following selfessentialization of a Japanese national identity can be traced back to the opening up of
Japan at the beginning of the Meiji Period. Since then many traditional cultural
77
This is taken from an interview originally published in the Japanese Keyboard
Magazine, August 1999: Team Ghiblink. “Music // Laputa: The Castle in the Sky.”
http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/laputa/music.html. Accessed October 20, 2013.
28
practices have been displaced in favor of Western culture. People were getting
educated in the Western styles of music for instance.78 However as a reaction to the
dominant position of the West, Japanese academics and even artists started to explore
their own unique (essential) identity.79
The discourse around an essential Japanese national identity has been called
‘nihonjinron’, which literally means ‘theories about the Japanese people.’ The fact
that these are just theories should be emphasized, because a lot of nihonjinron
literature is merely a search for Japanese uniqueness. It is only natural to be very
critical about the claims coming from some nihonjinron literature. Peter Dale for
example shows in his book ‘The myth of Japanese uniqueness’ how even the more
plausible claims are debatable and that all stems from a cultural nationalism, one that
is not much unlike German nationalism in the previous century.80
Though not all critique is necessarily a fact. In a review of the previous book,
Robert Marshall begins with: ‘To salvage anything from this intellectually dishonest
an intensely contentious book, we must begin with what we know: in the broadest
context of world history, Japan is unique.’81 One of the central counterarguments
Marshall makes is that uniqueness, or the search for distinction between Japan and the
rest of the world, serves the Japanese construction of reality in the same way that
‘freedom’ serves Americans.82 Moreover it is not uncommon for a nation to try and
distinct itself from others, especially when the other is represented by the West.
Nihonjinron asserts nothing more than that Japan is distinct, for example it is the only
non-Western nation that has fully industrialized every aspect of its economy.
Therefore it should not be portrayed as a mere myth. Though some claims proposed
by nihonjinron are indeed highly debatable and can even be considered propaganda,
others can be useful when theorizing about Japanese culture because it can reveal the
reasons behind the differences in cultural products.
Yang, Mina. “East Meets West in the Concert Hall: Asians and Classical Music in the
Century of Imperialism, Post-Colonialism, and Multiculturalism.” Asian Music 28, no. 1
(2007): 1-30. p. 4.
79
Tezuka, Yoshiharu. Japanese Cinema Goes Global Filmworkers' Journeys. Hong Kong:
Hong Kong University Press, 2012. p. 9-10.
80
Dale, Peter N. The Myth of Japanese Uniqueness. London: Croom Helm, 1986. p. 215.
81
Marshall, Robert C. Review of The Myth of Japanese Uniqueness, Peter Dale. Journal
of Japanish Studies 15, no 1 (1989): 266-272. p.266
82
Ibid. p.268
78
29
The written works of Toru Takemitsu, one of the most famous Japanese
composers during the postwar period, can also be considered part of the nihonjinron
literature, yet it might prove useful for analyzing Hisashi’s scores. Takemitsu was
trained in the Western concert idiom and long avoided being ‘Japanese’ until
American composer John Cage convinced Takemitsu otherwise and Takemitsu
ultimately recognized the elegance of traditional Japanese music. From the early
1960s Takemitsu began to explore the differences between Japanese and Western
musical traditions. He began searching for the essence of Japanese music in contrast
to Western music.83 He eventually explained the concepts of ‘sawari’ and ‘ma’ as
essential qualities of Japanese music in contrast to the essential elements of Western
music; rhythm, melody and harmony. Sawari for example is explained as a noisy
sound that gives an individual meaning to the played note instead of the relational
meanings, such as the chord progressions that are found in Western music.84
A second important concept for Takemitsu was the concept of ‘ma.’
To define this concept of ma seems to be a rather difficult task and many scholars
remain at least a little bit vague about the true meaning of the word. Research on this
particular concept has furthermore shown that ma is a Japanese ‘way of seeing.’
Takemitsu is one of the writers on ma who shares this view, for him ma is a
(Japanese) way of understanding time and space and it is seen as fundamentally
different from the Western perception of a linear time and space.85 Ma is seen as the
intervals of space and time that invite a certain action to fill them with meaning, yet
this does not really show ma’s deeper significance. Kenjiro Miyamoto further
suggests that when Takumitsu relates ma with traditional Japanese music, he
describes the concept as the silences that are consciously integrated between the notes
and that these silences are never a void but is filled with the sounds of space.86 The
result would be that the silences are equally important as the sounds, though they need
to be recognized by the listeners. Furthermore Takemitsu emphasizes that ma is not
just a silence or an empty space, but it is an interval marked out by events and objects
Takemitsu, Toru. “Contemporary Music in Japan.” Perspectives of New Music 27, no. 2
(1989): 198-204.
84
Takemitsu, Tōru. Confronting Silence: Selected Writings. Translated by Yoshiko
Kakudo, and Glenn Glasow. Berkeley: Fallen Leaf Press, 1995. p. 64-66.
85
Ibid. p. 56-57.
86
Miyamoto, Kenjiro. Klang im Osten: Klang im Westen : der Komponist Tōru Takemitsu
und die Rezeption europäischer Musik in Japan. Saarbrücken: PFAU, 1996. p. 150.
83
30
in time and space and cannot be separated from these events accordingly. In other
words silence does not exist without sound.87
The concept of ma does not only form a key element in Japanese music but
also in other Japanese art forms, such as Noh-theatre.88 Even Japanese architectural
design can be related to ma, because even a room can be seen as a space between
walls.89 Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, who also uses ma in his designs, believes
that the concept has a close connection to an ancient Japanese religious experience of
intense waiting for the moment the Japanese spirits (kami) will descent to earth.
These kami were believed to descent in vacant places marked by four posts, one in
each of the corners of the area. These places were to be filled with the kami’s spiritual
force called chi. Ma is the period of waiting for this place to be filled with chi. In
Isozaki’s own words ma would thus mean something in both space and time: ‘Space
was perceived as identical with events or phenomena occurring in it; that is, space
was perceived only in relation to time flow.’90 Furthermore Isosaki also explains that
this place was a bridge between two different points, the spirit world and the real
word and that ma thus connects these edges but it again needs some kind of action to
successfully do so.91
The complexity of the concept should now be evident and to create single
clear and meaningful definition is an incredible arduous or even impossible task. But
even in absence of such a definition researchers have been able to pinpoint how ma is
used in Takemitsu’s music. Peter Burt for example believes that ma in Takemitsu’s
refers to silences surrounding the notes which again are never void, but part of the
stream of sound.92 But looking back at some of the descriptions above ma can also
easily be connected to Takemitsu’s use of Western and Japanese instruments or
sounds. These sounds represent two different points (separated because of the nature
of Japanese sound which is called ‘sawari’) that can be connected through ma. For
87
Takemitsu. Confronting Silence. p. 51.
Konparu, Kunio. The Noh Theater: Principles and Perspectives. Translated by Jane
Corddry. New York: Weatherhill/Tankosha, 1983. p. 70-95.
89
There have been multiple exhibits on this relation in museums in Paris, New York and
Chicago between 1978 and 1980. The relations presented in one of these exhibits have been
summarized: Isozaki, Arata. “Ma: Japanese Time-Space.” The Japan Architect 54, no. 2
(1979): 69-81.
90
Ibid p. 71.
91
Ibid p. 74,
92
Burt, Peter. The Music of Tōru Takemitsu. New York: Cambridge University Press,
2001. p. 30, 236-237.
88
31
example in Lewis Cornwell’s discussion of November Steps ma is seen as a product
of the interaction between the sounds of the biwa, shakuhachi and
conductor/orchestra. Even the seating arrangement of the players was of great
importance to Takemitsu in order to create not only a bridge between sounds but also
a bridge covering a literal space.93
Ma in Japanese film
Takemitsu did not only compose music for the concert hall but he composed music
for over a hundred films, including some directed by Akira Kurosawa. One quick look
at the film Ran (1985) also shows that Takemitsu incorporated the concepts like
sawari and ma into the score. For example the main title features a high-pitched
musical motive played by strings that resemble the sound of a Japanese flute used in
Noh-theatre.94 Also during the final moments of the film Takemitsu uses an
instrument that again sounds like a Japanese flute. These sounds clearly display what
Takemitsu means by the difference between the Japanese and Western instruments.
The complexity of the timbre produced by these sounds is a clear example of sawari.
These ‘Japanese’ sounds become even more notable when heard next to the heavy
symphonic music Takemitsu composed for the siege of the warlord’s castle. It creates
a careful synthesis between Western and Eastern elements that become clear because
of difference.95
There are also examples in the score of Ran that can be connected to the
concept of ma. For Takemitsu the sounds of silence before and after music are perfect
to convey emotions. For example, during the siege of the warlord’s castle in which all
the sounds of battle are replaced by a Mahlerian symphonic sequence. This sequence
abruptly comes to a halt after a gunshot and all that is left is a painful silence followed
Cornwell, Lewis. “Toru Takemitsu’s November Steps.” Journal of New Music Research
31, no. 3 (2002): 211-220. p. 212-213.
94
Doering, James M. “A look at Japanese film music through the lens of Akira
Kurosawa.” Randolph-Macon College. http://www.rmc.edu/Academics/Asian-Studies/JapanFoundation/~/media/82D3F7F561BD4F2EB454FC42D35ECAF1.ashx. Accessed
October 26, 2013.
95
Calabretto, Roberto. “Takemitsu's Film music.” In Music Facing Up to Silence. Writings
on Toru Takemitsu, edited by Gianmario Borio, and Luciana Galiano, 177-201. Pavia: Pavia
University press, 2010. http://www.paviauniversitypress.it/scientifica/download/takemitsusito15nov2010.pdf.
93
32
by the sounds of death.96 So this silence is not just a void moment, but rather intense
as it invites the viewer to actively contemplate on what has happened and is currently
happening in the film.
There is also another way to find ma in this sequence, though not in the form
of a silent moment. The motion picture and the music that together form a film can
also be interpreted as two worlds and the meaning of both of these worlds are
supposed to be connected by the viewer. Yet in this sense every bit of film music
would be called ma, which is of course not the case. As seen in one of the
explanations of ma it is the bridge between different worlds, for example the spirit
world and the real world as pointed out by Isozaki or the difference between Eastern
and Western sounds and even culture described by Takemitsu.97 In the case of Ran the
difference between Eastern and Western are blatantly obvious as Takemitsu scored a
Mahlerian symphonic sequence in a film based on Japanese history. Furthermore the
gap between the music and picture is made even bigger because the music does not
mirror the action. Instead the music implies the terrible sadness and horrors of the
bloody battle, but it is the viewer’s task to give that meaning and bridge the gap
between the music and de picture.
Both examples of ma in Ran (1985) can also explain some of the choices and
statements made by Hisaishi when he composed for Miyazaki. Beginning with the
short amount of music that is often found in Miyazaki’s anime, the amount of music
in Laputa (1986) was only sixty minutes and had to be expanded for American
audiences. In Princess Mononoke (1996) for example the battles between the forest
gods and the humans are almost never scored, letting the images and sound effects
speak and letting the viewer add an appropriate emotion. Yet the preparations and the
first glimpse of the aftermath of one of the major battles (around respectively 85 and
93 minutes into the film) are provided with music, but here the short pauses between
rhythmic patterns on presumably Japanese percussion instruments create the most
intense moments of silence. It should also be noted that during these moments the
music is not inaudible anymore and instead takes the viewers attention because
loudness and a-synchronic relation the music has with the visuals. One of these
moments that deserves a bit more attention is the first glimpse of the aftermath
96
Kalinak, Kathryn Marie. Film Music A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2010. p. 75.
97
Takemitsu. Confronting silence p. 51-71.
33
mentioned above. The moment the protagonist looks towards the battlefield is
underscored by nothing more than a couple of consecutive Taiko drum sounds. These
sounds seem to be asynchronic and unpredictable and thus create moments of intense
waiting between them, much like the intense waiting for the spirits to come down.
In Spirited Away (2001) a similar way of using silence can be found in the
multiple encounters with the spirit Kaonashi during the first half of the film. He is one
of the few characters with its own musical theme or motive, though it only exists of a
couple of percussive sounds. This motive is used the same way as the drum sounds
mentioned before as they occur in an arhythmic fashion and the space in between
invites just an uneasy and strange feeling as the motive itself. It should be noted that
these spaces are however almost never silent because the Kaonashi theme often
appears as a part of other musical themes. But even together with the other musical
theme, the intervals between the Kaonashi motives seem to tie these events together
and forming a complete cycle.
Whether Hisaishi is fully aware of using ma in the scores is however debatable
and even though there are some examples to be found in his scores, these are not very
common. Furthermore Hisaishi never stated that he would use such a concept to
compose his music, nor is music films the best place to use such aesthetic concepts
like Takemitsu did in his orchestral works. But the fact that ma can explain some of
the qualities of music also creates an explanation to how and why Japanese film
music is different from Hollywood film music. For example in Japanese films such as
Akira Kurosawa’s Ran and anime films such as Princess Mononoke use less music
than Hollywood films and that the Japanese audience is probably not bothered with it
as much. The concept of ma as a unique Japanese quality in Japanese art is a plausible
explanation for the use of more silence; because of ma it can become a very fruitful
way to express meaning.
There are also some more similarities to be found between Hisaishi’s scores
and Takemitsu’s, which could imply more characteristics of film music in Japan. Both
Takemitsu and Hisaishi do not try capturing the action on screen in the music, which
according to Hisaishi is a very Hollywood way of using music, but use music for the
psychological subtext. But of course this is not a unique Japanese quality of film
music. On the contrary, this function of film music is more of a feature of film music
34
in general and hence can be found in many Hollywood films as well.98 However one
of the characteristics of the music used in the Japanese Noh-theater is that the music is
put to the characters mood and to portray the emotional tension of the plot.99 So the
use of music in Japanese and anime films could very well be influenced by these
traditional Japanese art forms.
Nevertheless looking at Hisaishi’s score for Spirited Away shows many
elements that can be considered Japanese, such as Japanese instruments or at least
instruments that a Western viewer believes to be East Asian. This is a very superficial
way of expressing Japanessness, however because these Japanese instruments sound
notably different from Western instruments they are perfect to express nationality.
This creates yet another possibility of using ma as the interval between separate
worlds (the Japanese and the West) that has to be bridged.
This also seems one of the key elements within some of Miyazaki’s films. As
seen in Napier’s analysis of Spirited Away, the film exactly represents her so-called
liminal space between the edges of traditional Japanese culture and modern Western
culture and even the space between the concepts of furusato and kokusaika can be
considered to be ma. Though coloring this space with his own vision of how this
space should be filled (surely it is his imagination that is drawn), he also leaves some
bits open to interpretation of the viewer. Among the most notable ones are some of
the endings to his movies that do not give away a sense of closure. In Princess
Mononoke it is uncertain if the distance between nature and man has been bridged,
that it could happen in the future or that it never will. More importantly Miyazaki
shows that at least a status quo can be achieved but to connect both worlds we have to
be patient and sensible about it.
Just like the movie plots, the music also often sits between the sounds of the
West and the sounds of Japan. Looking back at the examples of ma in the scores these
solely occur in combination with non-Western sounding instruments. Furthermore the
moments the sounds of these instruments appear seem to be carefully planned because
the appearance of these instruments is significantly greater during scenes that show a
connection with Japanese tradition and myth such as the introduction of the spirits and
98
Prendergast, Roy M. Film Music: A Neglected Art: a Critical Study of Music in Films.
New York: W.W. Norton, 1992. p. 216.
99
Malm, William P. Nagauta: The Heart of Kabuki Music. Rutland, Vt: C.E. Tuttle Co,
1963. p. 29-30.
35
the spirit world in Spirited Away about 14 minutes in the film. At the moment night
falls and Chihiro becomes trapped in what has now become spirit world, the
instrumentation changes from a string orchestra to an instrument that sounds like a
Japanese plucked string instrument like a koto. The music during this moment seems
to be more ‘audible’ than at other points, first of all because it is an (from a Western
viewers point of view) unfamiliar instrument, which stands out more. Secondly the
music is not subordinate to voices or the image at that point.
Another moment worth mentioning is the first day of Chihiro’s work in the
bathhouse about 52 minutes in the film. The bathhouse is of course linked with the
traditional Japanese identity (furusato), even though Napier has argued it is more an
object of an estranged identity. The music supports the idea that the bathhouse
represents a kind of Japaneseness, because next to the use of non-Western instruments
(consisting of percussion and a plucked string instrument) Hisaishi also used a
pentatonic scale instead of one of the (Western) diatonic scale he mostly uses. This of
course makes the theme to sound even more non-Western100 (see appendix 1.3 for my
own transcription of the first motive).
The majority of Hisaishi’s music is however scored for a late romantic
orchestra and the Japanese instruments only play a minor role in the entire film. This
of course makes them stand out more in the first place, like the Kaonashi theme that is
heard during a theme played by the orchestra most of the time. But in many other
instances the Japanese instruments seem to blend in with the orchestra eventually and
become inaudible. Even in the previous example of Chihiro’s work in the bathhouse
the strings and French horns start supporting the song after a minute. Furthermore the
melody of that theme is not at all a reflection of the distinctive Japanese sound
Takemitsu called sawari. Instead it seems to be played by Western concert flutes
because it sounds very pure and bright, unlike the complex sound a Japanese flute like
the shakuhachi would give, which would of course not be suitable for the inaudibility
of the music.
In many other cases these Japanese instruments only take the part of
supporting roles in the music. The theme played by a koto at the moment Chihiro is
100
It should be noted that pentatonality is not at all uncommon in Western music.
However the use of certain clichés to induce in this case oriental connotations is very
common and usefull. See for example Burnand, David & Benedict Sarnaker. “The
Articulation of National Identity Through Film Music,” National Identities 1, no. 1 (1999): 713.
36
trapped in the spirit world eventually becomes a mere rhythmic ostinato underlining
the fanfare-like music played by loud brass instruments and lush strings. This is
another example of the Japanese instruments blending in with the overall Western
romantic style of composing. Even though the Japanese instruments are used and are
sometimes very noticeable within the score, mainly because of the different sound
they produce, in the end most times the music does not fit within a distinctively
Japanese sound after all. Instead of distinguishing Japanese sounds from Western
sounds, Hisaishi seems to tighten gap between these worlds, either by letting the
Japanese instruments have a minor role in the bigger picture or by avoiding using
instruments that cannot produce more pure sounds. For example using a Western
concert flute instead of a Japanese flute in the previous example.
Chapter 4: Calling it Japanese
So even when in both Miyazaki’s animations and Hisaishi’s music some aspects are
closely related to a traditional Japanese identity, it can also be considered a
representation of a modern Japanese identity according to director Mamoru Oshii’s
beliefs. The music, like the story and animation, is heavily influenced by Western
cinema but at the same time its differences from Western cinema can be connected to
Japanese tradition making it a hybrid product. So could we thus label the movies
including the scores still Japanese? Of course it is already established in the previous
chapters that it cannot be purely Japanese, yet there could be multiple answers to this
question depending on whose point of view is taken. From to either the director
Oshii’s or the scholar Iwabuchi’s point of view this hybrid product could very well be
called Japanese, because. Miyazaki’s anime, like many other anime in general, covers
both Western and Japanese identities and even highlighting the friction between
them.101 In other words neither of the identities show dominance over the other, but
they rather exist together much like Iwabuchi’s theory about the Japanese identity. If
this is still true for the music however is still debatable.
The music is of course also a hybrid product, but it is questionable whether it
follows the same kind of hybridity the other aspects of anime follow. As discussed
above, the more Japanese characteristics in the music are not as clear and noticeable
101
Cavallaro. The Animé Art of Hayao Miyazaki. p.7.
37
as they can be, even though most of the time they are heard during the more
‘Japanese’ images. Hisaishi almost never uses Japanese instruments in a leading role
and only occasionally using distinctively non-Western musical structures in favor of a
romantic style of composing. Because of this it seems that the music leans to a
Western style creating scores with only minor influences from it Japanese roots. Thus
the music is not at all a hybrid of equal influences, nor is it a very Japanese sounding
score that has assimilated Western influences like Iwabuchi would argue is the case
for most Japanese cultural products. In the case of the score it seems more like the
other way around. It is mostly a Western score that has incorporated some Japanese
characteristics.
Yet the score itself is of course not the entire cultural product as it is only a
part of the entire movie. In contrast to just the scores Miyazaki’s storytelling does
seem to adhere to Iwabuchi’s theory. When looking at both Spirited Away (2001) and
My Neighbor Totoro (1988) a viewer might notice some similarities with Disney’s
Alice in Wonderland (1951) for example.102 Spirited Away deals with a young girl
who becomes trapped in another world and in My Neighbor Totoro a girl falls down a
hole in a tree into the lair of an otherworldly catlike creature. Though these
similarities seem quite obvious, the worlds and characters Miyazaki has created are
notably different and show off a more Japanese odor, as Iwabuchi would call it, than
Alice’s wonderland and thus hiding away this Western influence. In other words
Miyazaki borrows Western elements but incorporates them to create something that
seems entirely new and, more importantly, different or even non-Western. This could
very well be the case with the music as well. Though the music in Miyazaki’s movies
sounds like music used in Hollywood cinema most of the time, it is still notably
different. To summarize the scores uses just enough Japanese influences, like the use
of more silence or ma, to be different from Hollywood scores.
The question whether to label Miyazaki’s films Japanese is still difficult to
answer, because how would it be possible to label cultural product that, like Davis
mentioned earlier, is influenced and built using elements from various sources that
either have roots in Japan or are more related to other cultures. But this is something it
has in common with almost any kind of cultural product, most of all due the concept
102
Napier. “Matter Out of Place.” p. 290.
38
of globalization and its relating trends that are as old as ancient human civilizations.
Two trends are those of universalism (or homogenization) and of particularism.103
Universalism describes the process through different cultures become the
same, mostly because of the spread of Western (or even American) popular culture.
The products of this culture, such as music, movies and tv-shows, are spread by mass
media and promote a Western way of life. Particularism occurs at the same time as
universalism and as a reaction to it. It stems from the will of having a unique identity
but also from the unique historical backgrounds that distinguishes certain cultures
from others.104 Thus instead of the rise of a single ‘world culture’ distinctness and
differences between ‘local cultures’ still exist and are actively celebrated. Although
these two processes seem contradictory, it is not impossible for them to coexist. For
instance the awareness of the differences between cultures is seen everywhere and at
the same time universal ideas such as human rights or free trade are enacted in
different ways in different cultures. This relation between universalism and
particularism can also be summarized with Robertson’s concept of glocalization,
because “glocalization means the simultaneity --- the co-presence --- of both
universalizing and particularizing tendencies.” 105
The third trend is that of hybridity and in its basic sense within the cultural
globalization debate it refers to the blending of different cultures that eventually
create new cultural products. This does not mean that the hybridity leads to a single
world culture, because as Robinson already stated that there are still differences to be
found between cultures due to particularizing tendencies. These differences appear for
example in languages or in cultural traditions. These differences are exactly what can
be found in the Miyazaki’s animations and Hisaishi’s scores and it is thus not strange
that the reasons behind these differences can be linked to Japanese tradition and
therefore the scores might be called at least a bit ‘Japanese.’
Even in other musicological literature it is not uncommon to keep referring
something as ‘Japanese’ or ‘Russian’ or ‘German’ because some characteristics of the
music have a connection to a certain cultural tradition or history. In other words the
103
Robertson. Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture. p. 97-115.
Ibid. p. 98-105.
105
Robertson, Roland. “Comments on the "Global Triad" and "Glocalization".” In
Globalization and Indigenous Culture: 40th Anniversary Memorial Symposium, January,
1996, edited by Nobutaka Inoue. Tokyo, Japan: Institute for Japanese Culture and Classics,
Kokugakuin University, 1997. http://www2.kokugakuin.ac.jp/ijcc/wp/global/index.html
104
39
labeling and connection of a nation to a piece of music is not at all unique. Many
examples of this can be found in romantic German or Italian opera’s. One more
example is Stravinsky’s so-called ‘Russian period’ that is called Russian due to the
influences of Russian folklore and folksong, both of which greatly contributed to his
three great ballet pieces; The Firebird, Petrushka and the Rite of Spring. This resulted
in something that sounded different from the conventional Western music at that
time.106 A similar argument can be found for Stravinsky’s teacher Rimsky-Korsakov
who also drew inspiration from many folksongs and legends operas. Subsequently his
operas are one of the most celebrated ‘Russian’ opera’s, though in many cases it
seems that these operas show many features that are more related to non-Russian and
more Western music, such as Wagner’s operas.107 In other words his treatment of his
Russian sources often followed principles of conventional Western art music.
So even though it is not purely Russian music, nevertheless there remain
reasons to call it Russia. In the case of these Russian examples (and many others) the
reason relates to the nationalism of the 19th century.108 Of course in our case of
Japanese film scores its incorporation of Japanese elements do not have very much to
do 19th century nationalism. It does however show some kind ‘national substance’, as
Taruskin calls it, similar to the music of many Russian composers that are regarded as
‘Russian’ composers.109 This suggests that even in the late 20th century, Japanese
cultural products follow similar principals of distinguishing some kind of nationality.
Yet the answer to the question ‘what is this national substance?’ remains unclear,
because there is no plain answer to give. Richard Wagner even agrees on this in a
postscript on his essay ‘What is German?’ He answers: “I have come up against this
question with more and more confusion… it is impossible to answer.”110
Hence when looking at Hisaishi’s scores it is not relevant to answer the
question ‘what is Japanese about it?’ That is why the research must focus on what
makes it different from other films and where those differences could come from.
106
Taruskin, Richard. The Oxford History of Western Music Vol. 4. New York: Oxford
University Press, 2005. p. 151-190, 488.
107
Taruskin. On Russian Music. p.166-178.
108
Dahlhaus, Carl, “Nationalism and Music.” In Between Romanticism and Modernism:
Four Studies in the Music of the late Nineteenth Century, 79-101. Translated by Mary
Whittall. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.
109
Taruskin. On Russian Music. p. 27-45.
110
Applegate, Celia, and Pamela M. Potter. "Germans as the ‘People of Music’:
Genealogy of an Identity." In Music and German National Identity, 1-35. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 2002. p. 33.
40
These are the areas that are explored in the scores and as result it might be possible to
call the scores and even the films in general at least something different from
Hollywood films. Yet to be calling it Japanese is unwise, as there should be no such
thing as something ‘Japanese.’ On the other hand the differences are often a result of
using elements that are rooted in a native or perhaps a national place, thus labeling the
scores Japanese might just be like referring to this quality and it distinguishes it from
Hollywood scores.
Conclusion
Japanese animation has proven to be a valuable research subject not only because of
its popularity in Japan and increasing awareness of this cultural product in the West,
but also for the way it is constructed. Many of the anime series and films discussed
before show the deep connection they have to their Japanese roots while at the same
time they can appear to be very disconnected from any kind of national culture. The
settings, characters and story often do not invoke any image of a distinctively
Japanese way of life and therefore, as Iwabuchi calls it, anime is culturally odorless. It
is thus believed that most anime have a unique quality of not showing off any cultural
identity, while still being influenced by both Western and non-Western cultures. In
turn this is also believed to be exactly what the contemporary Japanese cultural
identity would beheld.
This is however a dangerous statement because one could oversimplify and
essentialize the Japanese cultural identity this way which makes it not very useful to
approach anime in this matter. However analyzing anime can be useful in order to
figure out how the input of different cultural influences are negotiated in a Japanese
cultural product and subsequently discover how and why anime is something different
from Hollywood animation and live-action cinema. The work of director Hayao
Miyazaki often served as a valuable research subject regarding these questions
because his work ranges across the two interconnected concepts that appear to be
defining Japanese contemporary society, named kokusaika and furusato. Up until now
almost none of the research on Miyazaki’s work however has involved the scores, of
which Joe Hisiashi composed almost all.
41
In analyzing the scores of some of Miyazaki’s best known works there are
many relations to be found between the way music is used in Hollywood live-action
cinema and Miyazaki’s anime. Many of the concepts describing the functions and
features of Hollywood film music are easily applicable the scores of Hisaishi. The
music is simple and inaudible, creates unity and adds a psychological subtext. The
connections Hisaishi’s music has to specifically Western animation like The Loony
Tunes or Tom and Jerry are considerably less. In the case of Western cartoons the
music generally exaggerates actions and mocks emotions to create a more lighthearted
atmosphere. But anime in general is often not very lighthearted itself, and so is the
music in Miyazaki’s anime. There are however moments in the films in which the
music is in fact used to create a more ‘cartoonish’ situation. This suggests that
Hisaishi is very aware of how the music can make a scene funny and that Miyazaki
sometimes wants to add some comic relief within the movie.
There are also differences between the general Hollywood scores and the
scores of Hisaishi, such as the use of certain instruments and the amount and silence
in the entire score. Most importantly there is a connection that can be drawn between
these differences and the concept of ma. This concept has been related to many
different Japanese cultural products, such as music, theatre and even architecture.
Many of the theorists on this concept are however Japanese and hence might be
biased. Furthermore the concept itself is difficult to define, but it is implausible to
deny that this concept played a pivotal role in much of Japan’s art because most artists
have consciously worked with similar ideas. Working with the definitions given by
both composer Takemitsu and architect Isozaki, the concept can easily also be related
to the film scores by Hisaishi and it can explain the absence of sound during multiple
scenes in the anime films.
The music has definitely shown some similar trends that also seem to appear
in the other aspects of the anime. It also ranges across a Western or international style
of composing for film while implementing a distinct Japanese touch to it, supported
by the visual animations. Though this Japanese touch appears in a far less obvious
sense than the visual animations do. Would the score stand on its own it is even
possible to claim it has almost nothing to do with a distinctively Japanese culture,
because the Japanese influences seem to only have a minor role.
But even with regard to the characteristics that do make the score different
from a general Hollywood score, it is inadvisable to call the score a uniquely Japanese
42
cultural product that exemplifies the contemporary Japanese identity, mainly because
it is not unique at all. Due to the process of globalization and constant crosspollination of cultures, every product is a hybrid even though many theorists have
tried to come up with distinctive national qualities of their own culture tied to certain
national traditions or folklore and as a result Hisaishi’s scores ‘Japanese.’ In short the
Japaneseness of the scores has it’s meaning attached to characteristics that relate to a
view on Japanese tradition. From this point of view we could view the scores, and
perhaps all aspects of Miyazaki’s anime, as something uniquely Japanese, because it
is indeed tied to some Japanese roots. And it is because of this connection the scores
are something different than the Hollywood standard.
43
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Appendix
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