What does the film "Ghost in the Shell" and other Japanese films indicate about Japanese views on the body and identity?
It is tempting to look at Japanese culture and seeing elements of postmodernism in its media, to see Japan as being postmodernist. I myself agree mostly with Toshiko Ellis who says that "finding parrallels in cultural and societal phenomena and claiming that the two societies are undergoing a similar historical experience are two different matters" (1995 Japanese encounters with postmodernity). Also there is an element of contradiction in looking at one nation and comparing it with other nations in order to discuss postmodernism, as this in a way goes against the spirit of postmodernism. With this in mind, my intention in this essay is not so much to discuss whether or not the elements in Japanese texts - particularly Anime, are symptoms of a postmodernist culture, but how these ideas fit in with Japanese texts historically, and compare with other ideas globally. Postmodernism is a reaction to modernism which also has a completely different significance in Japan due to the way the country was forced into modernisation by America and the rest of the Western world, both in terms of economics and the fear of being left behind by the west, and also because in 1854 Commodor Perry with his "Black Ships" forced open the Japanese ports and invited Japan to trade in friendly relations. This essay will be mostly focused on views of the body and its relation to the mind and soul. These views also have a different historical view, as in the West Christianity has been the dominant religion and has attempted to stifle or dominate non-Christian views on how the universe and its inhabitants are created and how they exist. Christianity was introduced into Japan much later, and then was succesfully abolished in the 17th Century and did not return for hundreds of years. The most dominant religions in Japan have been Shinto, which is the religion that is indigenous to Japan and is currently the state religion. The other is Buddhism, in many forms, particularly Zen Buddhism, Amida Buddhism and Daishonin Buddhism. As will be discussed later, these religions have their own views on the human body, and the mind, which elements of can be seen in Japanese fiction. However it is apparent that many aspects of certain Genre in Japanese texts show features of postmodernism. Having no alternative term to describe them, I will describe Japanese elements in texts and philosophy as postmodernist (or using subdivisions of postmodernism) but it is important to realise that the phenomena in Japan is not the same as in the West.
Many Japanese animation films are described not just as postmodern, but as cyberpunk or posthumanist. "Ghost in the Shell" and "Akira" are probably the best examples of this. Typical Cyberpunk fiction often involves some type of authority that has control over the public with the support of high technology. This is particularly evident in "Ghost in the Shell" where the future Hong Kong is completely dependant on the net. This is contolled by various government divisions who are able to gain information by use of computers directly linked to the characters brains. This information can include things as mundane as waste disposal pick up points. The idea that humans are somehow directly linked to this technology is also an important part of cyberpunk - the view that somehow the human being is nothing more than a machine. This could be seen as a postmodern adaptation of the theories of Rene Descartes, who suggested the idea of the human body and the mind (and identity) being seperate. The title "Ghost in the Shell" is similar to "Ghost in the Machine" or "Deus ex Machina", but also is similar to the Zen Buddhist view that a human is nothing but a corpse that is haunted by a spirit.
It could be argued that in Japanese philosophy and religion there is an importance in loosing attachment to the human body, and that the body is something disposable. In "Ghost in the Shell", the characters have replaced their own bodies with robotic bodies. At the end of the film the main character, Motoko Kusanagi, has had her body destroyed, but is able to have it replaced. The idea of a body being replaced, or healed so that the character is indistructable is frequently used in manga (comics) and anime (animations) in Japan. In "Akira", when the character Tetsuo has his arm blown off, he is able to rebuild it himself. In "Sazan Eyes" the character Yakamo is made into an immortal. Although he cannot be killed, he frequently endures horrendous injuries, in the comic version he is even beheaded, and is slowly healed afterwards.
For a westerner, seeing this, in conjunction with the stereotypical view that suicide is a particularly Japanese characteristic - fueled by events in World War II such as the Kamikaze and the jumping into the sea by Japanese civilians in Okinawa (in fear of what the Americans would do to them when they were captured) and the romanticised idea of honourable suicide in Samurai stories, it could be possible to believe that Japanese see life as unimportant. This is not true. Although there is a belief in rebirth, there is a view that this current life is something that should be cherished. Nichiren Daishonin, the founder of a branch of Buddhism originating in Japan, says "A single life is worth more than the universe... how precious life is". This comes from a letter from one of his followers who has become ill, and advises that following the Lotus Sutra is a good way of prolonging life. However he also says "I have given up my life on mountains, seas and rives, on the seashore and by the roadside, but never once did I die for the Lotus Sutra, or suffer persecution for the Daimoku. Hence none of the ends I met enabled me to reach enlightenment". This shows that during those times it was completely accepted that a person would go through many lives. This idea of rebirth is still believed today, in different ways by various types of Buddhism. One commonly used explanation for rebirth used by follows of Daishonin Buddhism is the idea that life is like a sea, and that each individual person is like a wave, which momentarily comes on to the shore, and then is returned into the sea. Although no wave is ever the same as before, each wave is made from the same water as before, and all the waves are from essentially the same ocean. The scene at the end of "Ghost in the Shell" could be seen as an illustration of this. The character Motoko has been destroyed by the military, and when she is "reborn", she says that neither Motoko, or the being known as the puppet master exist any more. What now exists is a new being, in a different body - apparently one of a child - who has characteristics that have been made from different characters, who are now dead. It is equally possible to suggest that the film is suggesting that the idea of rebirth can be explained in a concept as mundane as parenthood, and that the child is a mixture of the parents reborn.
There is also a similar ending in the film "Tetsuo" . In this film there are two characters who start to become robots. Through much of the film there is the feeling that the two characters are becoming corrupt by their transformation, and then finally they join together into one symbiotic mass of flesh and metal in order to destroy the world. This also happens in "Akira" where the character Tetsuo (this is probably a coincidence as this is merely a boy痴 name in Japan, although it is possible that Tsukamoto meant it as a pun in his film, though it is written in different characters) looses control over his body and also becomes more and more destructive. In "Ghost in the Shell", although the characters do not become so monstrous, there are characters who are taken over by the puppet master in order to commit crimes against their own will and without knowing why they are doing it. In literature from ancient times there is evidence of a fear of bodily corruption, and the fear of becoming a monster. In the Kojiki, which is one of the two important peices of Shinto literature (Shinto is the traditional, and official religion of Japan), there is a passage where one of the Kami ("Kami" is a word that cannot be translated properly into English, which lies somewhere between God and Spirit), Izanami has died, and her brother follows her to hell, where she begs for him to not look upon her as she is ashamed of what she has become. It says that "Maggots were swarming, and she was rotting". Following this, she sends a female demon to attack him, and issues various threats. Her physical corruption has coincided with a change of character. It could be argued that the detail in which her corruption is described is evidence of a morbid fascination. This can be seen in many other examples in ancient and modern times. In "Tetsuo" there is a close up shot where an injury is shown to be infested with maggots. In "Akira" and "Sazan Eyes" there are characters who are shown to endure horrific mutilations and painful injuries.
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Many Japanese animation films are described not just as postmodern, but as cyberpunk or posthumanist. "Ghost in the Shell" and "Akira" are probably the best examples of this. Typical Cyberpunk fiction often involves some type of authority that has control over the public with the support of high technology. This is particularly evident in "Ghost in the Shell" where the future Hong Kong is completely dependant on the net. This is contolled by various government divisions who are able to gain information by use of computers directly linked to the characters brains. This information can include things as mundane as waste disposal pick up points. The idea that humans are somehow directly linked to this technology is also an important part of cyberpunk - the view that somehow the human being is nothing more than a machine. This could be seen as a postmodern adaptation of the theories of Rene Descartes, who suggested the idea of the human body and the mind (and identity) being seperate. The title "Ghost in the Shell" is similar to "Ghost in the Machine" or "Deus ex Machina", but also is similar to the Zen Buddhist view that a human is nothing but a corpse that is haunted by a spirit.
It could be argued that in Japanese philosophy and religion there is an importance in loosing attachment to the human body, and that the body is something disposable. In "Ghost in the Shell", the characters have replaced their own bodies with robotic bodies. At the end of the film the main character, Motoko Kusanagi, has had her body destroyed, but is able to have it replaced. The idea of a body being replaced, or healed so that the character is indistructable is frequently used in manga (comics) and anime (animations) in Japan. In "Akira", when the character Tetsuo has his arm blown off, he is able to rebuild it himself. In "Sazan Eyes" the character Yakamo is made into an immortal. Although he cannot be killed, he frequently endures horrendous injuries, in the comic version he is even beheaded, and is slowly healed afterwards.
For a westerner, seeing this, in conjunction with the stereotypical view that suicide is a particularly Japanese characteristic - fueled by events in World War II such as the Kamikaze and the jumping into the sea by Japanese civilians in Okinawa (in fear of what the Americans would do to them when they were captured) and the romanticised idea of honourable suicide in Samurai stories, it could be possible to believe that Japanese see life as unimportant. This is not true. Although there is a belief in rebirth, there is a view that this current life is something that should be cherished. Nichiren Daishonin, the founder of a branch of Buddhism originating in Japan, says "A single life is worth more than the universe... how precious life is". This comes from a letter from one of his followers who has become ill, and advises that following the Lotus Sutra is a good way of prolonging life. However he also says "I have given up my life on mountains, seas and rives, on the seashore and by the roadside, but never once did I die for the Lotus Sutra, or suffer persecution for the Daimoku. Hence none of the ends I met enabled me to reach enlightenment". This shows that during those times it was completely accepted that a person would go through many lives. This idea of rebirth is still believed today, in different ways by various types of Buddhism. One commonly used explanation for rebirth used by follows of Daishonin Buddhism is the idea that life is like a sea, and that each individual person is like a wave, which momentarily comes on to the shore, and then is returned into the sea. Although no wave is ever the same as before, each wave is made from the same water as before, and all the waves are from essentially the same ocean. The scene at the end of "Ghost in the Shell" could be seen as an illustration of this. The character Motoko has been destroyed by the military, and when she is "reborn", she says that neither Motoko, or the being known as the puppet master exist any more. What now exists is a new being, in a different body - apparently one of a child - who has characteristics that have been made from different characters, who are now dead. It is equally possible to suggest that the film is suggesting that the idea of rebirth can be explained in a concept as mundane as parenthood, and that the child is a mixture of the parents reborn.
There is also a similar ending in the film "Tetsuo" . In this film there are two characters who start to become robots. Through much of the film there is the feeling that the two characters are becoming corrupt by their transformation, and then finally they join together into one symbiotic mass of flesh and metal in order to destroy the world. This also happens in "Akira" where the character Tetsuo (this is probably a coincidence as this is merely a boy痴 name in Japan, although it is possible that Tsukamoto meant it as a pun in his film, though it is written in different characters) looses control over his body and also becomes more and more destructive. In "Ghost in the Shell", although the characters do not become so monstrous, there are characters who are taken over by the puppet master in order to commit crimes against their own will and without knowing why they are doing it. In literature from ancient times there is evidence of a fear of bodily corruption, and the fear of becoming a monster. In the Kojiki, which is one of the two important peices of Shinto literature (Shinto is the traditional, and official religion of Japan), there is a passage where one of the Kami ("Kami" is a word that cannot be translated properly into English, which lies somewhere between God and Spirit), Izanami has died, and her brother follows her to hell, where she begs for him to not look upon her as she is ashamed of what she has become. It says that "Maggots were swarming, and she was rotting". Following this, she sends a female demon to attack him, and issues various threats. Her physical corruption has coincided with a change of character. It could be argued that the detail in which her corruption is described is evidence of a morbid fascination. This can be seen in many other examples in ancient and modern times. In "Tetsuo" there is a close up shot where an injury is shown to be infested with maggots. In "Akira" and "Sazan Eyes" there are characters who are shown to endure horrific mutilations and painful injuries.