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Foremost among the former are Dogo Onsen, Japan’s oldest public bath, which inspired the bathhouse from ‘Spirited Away’ and Matsuyama-jō, one of Shikoku’s best-preserved castles. Suffice to say, the variety and uniqueness of the food could have easily been a small inspiration for Miyazaki in making this film. While I don't think I saw any of the more unique Jiufen foods in Spirited Away (or in any pictures of Spirited Away), both places had numerous food stalls, food, and people/spirits eating the food. The vibe of the food stalls and the people eating the food was similar as well. You can buy official Dogo Onsen soap from a unique vending machine inside the bath house that is sure to impress your Japanese friends.
Yubara Onsen Aburaya
This Bathhouse Life-Sim Is My Dream Combo Of Stardew Valley And Spirited Away - DualShockers
This Bathhouse Life-Sim Is My Dream Combo Of Stardew Valley And Spirited Away.
Posted: Sun, 19 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Multiple large wooden doors, which close off at least four other rooms, block the path to Yubaba's office, followed by many, twisting hallways. As shown by Haku, the top floor can also be accessed by a long, spiraling set of stone stairs. Boh means little boy or son, Kamaji means old boiler man, Yubaba means bathhouse witch, and Zeniba means money witch. The heroine Chihiro means a thousand fathoms or searches, while her worker name, Sen, just means thousand. They do many jobs in the Bathhouse while employed, such as waiting on the customers, preparing and serving the food, and cleaning the tubs for future use. She is then seen coming out of a rampaging No-Face's guest room and quickly dismisses her (then transformed) son, Boh, for being a "dirty mouse" and pushes Chihiro in the room to face No-Face alone.
Japanese name
Located below ground and can be accessed by side stairs jutting outside the exterior of The Bathhouse, the Boiler Room is home to Kamajī and countless Susuwatari (soot sprites).. Its walls are lined with drawers containing herbs that Kamajī memorizes in order to send herbal water up to the baths. The rest of the space is largely empty, save for a large wooden structure that acts as Kamajī's bed and workplace as well as the multiple holes in the wall that act as living space for the Susuwatari.
The Guests of the Bathhouse
The River Spirit is a supporting character in the movie, and Chihiro is in charge of taking care of him. At first, Yubaba thinks the River Spirit is a Stink Spirit because of the nauseating stench coming from the shapeless, sludge body that enters the Bathhouse. However, after removing a bike from the spirit's body and draining the spirit of all the junk, it's revealed that the spirit was a River Spirit who was wealthy. The River Spirit is a significant character in the movie because, in a way, he helps Chihiro grow as a character and he gives her special medicine that helps No-Face and Haku later in the movie.
Situated in the town of Matsuyama in Ehime Prefecture, Shikoku, Dogo Onsen Honkan is a Japanese bathhouse with an early-modern Japanese-style exterior. The complex wooden structure of the building is completely the same as the bathhouse depicted in Spirited Away. There is a drawing of Dogo Onsen Honkan included in the sketches of the animation crew, so it is believed to be the prototype of the bathhouse in Spirited Away.
One the third floor is a rest space where visitors can eat or take a nap. The agricultural lifestyle of Yamagata prefecture is represented through the film’s unique soundtrack, which makes use of Romanian folk songs. Throughout Only Yesterday, Takahata’s reverence for the earnest beauty of farm life is shown through the film’s bright, beautiful animation. The main building offers private hot spring baths where you can enjoy having the onsen all to yourself.
Ignoring warnings that Miyazaki hated computer animation, Lasseter showed the filmmaker Luxo Jr. and Red’s Dream. It was made by a Japanese Twitter user who goes by the name of @Sorakio. They constructed the model entirely by hand using commercially available plastic as well as parts from plastic warship models. The artist’s work has been viewed almost 400k times since it was recently shared online, and we’re really not surprised, because their awesomely intricate model is nothing short of stunning.
Ground Floor
Some tales involving Baba Yaga also mention the existence of several sibling Babas of varying alignments, mirrored by Yubaba's relationship with Zeniba. Realizing that "Boh" was really just the Three Heads and that the "gold" she received from No-Face was merely mud, she storms into Boh's room looking for her son and asks Haku, with blazing anger, where her son is. When told he was at Zeniba's place, Yubaba immediately extinguishes the flames in her mouth and seats herself in a chair, striking a deal with Haku to have him return Boh in exchange for Chihiro's freedom. She is quite selfish and frugal (when it comes to her workers), having given herself an opulent office with immeasurable amounts of unoccupied space and her many workers a single, cramped room as living space. From the other side, however, she also readily takes both disgusting and dangerous tasks herself (like meeting the Stink Spirit or attempting to shield her workers from the rampaging No-Face).
Bathhouse
Spirited Away has the Japanese but somewhat other-worldy thing going for it due to the other-worldliness of it. In the second half of the film, No-Face scatters counterfeit gold that emerges from his hands, eats gluttonously, and acts without restraint. Then he transforms into a disproportioned and uncanny creature, like a spider or tick, with a tiny head on a giant body. In Japan, however, the gods have long maintained their connection with the natural world. The fact that kami are counted using the word hashira (pillar) conveys an association of being rooted to the ground.
Inside, there are multiple benches, chairs, and even decorative pillars, as if it is one of the train stations for spirits to sit on and wait for the train. When inactive, the clock tower does not appear this way; there is no plaster on the building's front, back, or tunnel, and no tower. Instead, the lower rectangular part of the building becomes made of pale brick with moss covering most of the front.
The currency of the realm (as shown in various scenes from the film) are small, solid gold pieces. They are considered rare and extremely valuable by Yubaba and most of the Bathhouse Workers. The exact exchange rate between a gold piece and the Japanese Yen is not shown or mentioned in the movie. Most hotels and guesthouses in the city are clustered around the pleasant Dogo Onsen area.
I really like this sort of thing for some reason… Maybe Miyazaki stopped by to walk through this exhibit as well? Spirited Away was definitely one of Miyazaki's most unique and interesting films character-wise, I'd say. If he ran across this place, there would have been no shortage of wild inspiration for him to draw from. The surprise and magic of coming out of a tunnel and into a newish world (in Jiufen) felt really reminiscent of the beginning of Spirited Away when Chihiro and her parents go through the tunnel and into the town. Luckily, on the other side of our tunnel all we had was a tea house, run by ordinary people. The spirits in the film ate tons of food (you know that from Fiona's post about the foods of Spirited Away).
You can get there by walking up a series of stone steps located directly north-east of Dōgo Park. Lots of masks, and lots of sources for possible character inspiration, wouldn't you say? Whatever happened or didn't happen here, though, I can easily conclude that this was my favorite part of Jiufen.
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