The Meaning of Princess Kaguya (Video Essay)

There's this old Japanese myth known as the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, in which a celestial princess from the moon is sent down to Earth after committing a crime. But despite Princess Kaguya's alien origin, Studio Ghibli used her story to truly explore the human experience in one of the greatest films ever made, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. Before we get into it though, it's time to cue the obligatory spoiler warning. While hard at work one day, a bamboo cutter named Sanuki discovers baby Kaguya inside a stock of bamboo, wrapped in fine clothing. After showing her to his wife, the couple agree to raise her as their own. Kaguya's adoptive mother simply accepts her as her child, but Sanuki believes that there is deeper meaning behind her emergence into their lives. He sees her as a gift sent down from the heavens for him, and when other bamboo stalks start shooting out money and fine clothing to raise her with, Sanuki concludes that the gods wish for her to become a princess. But the luxuries of being a princess are the furthest thing from Kaguya's mind. She's perfectly content with the subsistence lifestyle she's found herself in. She doesn't mind living off the land, in fact, she rather enjoys being so close to nature. Kaguya's magical antics, her fast aging especially, quickly earn her a place in the friend group of the local kids, who bestow upon her the nickname, Lil' Bamboo. She forms a bond with the eldest member of their group, Stamaru, and despite meeting Stamaru while significantly younger than him, she easily catches up to him in age. However, Stamaru has a better grasp of just how special Kaguya is than even she does, and he mentions that he's afraid she will run off someday and achieve greatness, leaving the rest of the group in the dust. I think this is something most people can relate to. We all have that one person in our friend group who is far As much as they'd like to deny it, we all know that their natural talents would go wasted at home. But if you ever bend that needle in the haystack, then you know that Kaguya doesn't care about the differences between her and her friends. She's happy where she is, so all she wants is to remain in their gang for the rest of her days. Sadly though, the very day she promises Stamaru that she would never leave, she's forced to move to the capital with her parents. You see, her father uses the gold sent to him by the gods to build his daughter a great mansion, where he has summoned a governess to train Kaguya in the ways of nobility. So Kaguya has no choice but to leave behind not just her friends, but also the land she has become so deeply connected to. And I can tell you from experience that leaving all that behind is quite painful. Despite still being a child, the days Kaguya will someday look back on as her childhood are over with. Gone are the days of frolicking around in the forest with her friends. Gone are the days of living among the birds, the bugs, the beasts, and the flowers. Now she must face the trials and tribulations of womanhood in feudal Japan. But before we get to that, a word from this video's sponsor, the Emperor of Japan. Are you tired of living off the land and stealing from others when it doesn't provide you with enough food? Well, come on down to the capital. We have large mansions, hot food, fine clothing, and parties the last four days. Our women know their place and are always prepared to shave their eyebrows and color their teeth black to meet your needs. So come on down to the capital and have yourself a good time. Just remember, I can claim any woman I want because I'm the Emperor. So yeah, there's a very strict lifestyle that all of Japan's noblewomen are forced to follow. Kaguya, of course, used to the independence, freedom, and equality offered back in the woods, does not take very kindly to this new way of life. Society now expects her to take everything seriously, to grow up in a sense. But Kaguya does not care about what society wants. She can easily see how flawed the system is, so she ignores it. She chooses happiness over conformity. She chooses her own expectations for herself over those placed on her by society. Unfortunately for Kaguya, though, society isn't the only thing trying to control her. Her father is, too. And parental expectations are far more desirable to fulfill than those of society, even if they go against what one wants. Because unlike society, which simply sees her as an object to be possessed, her father is acting out of love. So despite taking no interest in the governess's teachings, she immediately falls back on them when her father is around in the hopes of making him proud, in the hopes of making him happy. She does, however, refuse the governess's request for her to pluck her eyebrows and paint her teeth black. Because without her eyebrows, sweat would get into her eyes, and with black teeth, who would want to see her smile? The governess tells her that a princess neither sweats nor smiles. But if that's the case, Kaguya wonders, is a princess even a person? Some time passes, and eventually, Kaguya hits puberty. Shocked and disgusted by what her body is beginning to go through, she sits motionless in the only room of the mansion that reminds her of home. In her mind, life has become significantly worse, and remembering her home is only solace to be found when so far from it. Her father, to commemorate her newfound womanhood, proposes the idea that they throw her a party. And this immediately brings Kaguya out of her slump because finally, after being away from her friends for so long, this party is the perfect opportunity to see them again. I mean, just look at her face! It may be hand-drawn, but you can see the vibrancy of her excitement as the possibility of seeing her friends presents itself. But her father will have no such thing. So he throws this huge banquet which lasts for three entire days, and not one of Kaguya's friends is invited. Because it would not be fitting for a princess to invite peasants to her manor. In fact, it's not even fitting for a princess to have partaken the festivities of her own party. Instead, she must remain in her box like a doll, away from all the fun, for three whole days. Everything she's done, everything she's left behind, has all been in service to her father's dream of making her the princess he has always seen her to be. She's destined to follow the path laid out for her by her father. In her mind, this is her purpose in life. So this is for her own good, right? Sitting in this box is for her own good, right? And this is when she hears one of the nobles mention that no matter what she does, no matter how hard she tries to follow this path, she will always be a commoner and never become a real princess. As you might expect, this comment completely shatters her soul. If her father's ambitions for her are truly out of her reach, then what was the point of it all? Why did he build her such a large mansion and provide her with such lavish clothing? Why did she spend day after day learning from the governess how to act like something she can never become? And if she will never be a princess, what was the point of leaving her friends, of leaving her home? The nobles then ask they can gaze upon Kaguya's beauty, and when her father declines their request, they say that she must be ugly. Not only will such an insult have hurt her, but even more so, this comment spelled out for her to be objectified while confined in her box. So in a flurry of despair, she runs away from all the comforts and responsibilities of her station and returns to her childhood home, only to realize that the trees she once gazed upon are desolate, and the friends she once frolicked with are nowhere to be found. Her childhood is truly over, and there's no going back to the way things were. All that's left for her is her father's desperate dream, a life of nobility and subsequent inferiority. Because a princess is not a person in feudal Japan, she's a possession. But there's still a small hope for her yet. Kaguya's life may suck right now, she may have hit rock bottom, but winter doesn't last forever. Someday soon the trees will be full of leaves once again, so maybe, just maybe, joy will return to her life as well. With this in mind, Kaguya returns home, accepting that winter has not yet ended for her, as she, in tears, permits the governess to pluck her eyebrows and paint her teeth black. She then dedicates herself to becoming true nobility just as her father wishes, living her days in silence. Following her coming-of-age banquet, potential suitors begin sending her gifts in the hopes of winning her favor. One man even gives her a bird. Kinda nice, don't you think? Unlike all the other presents she's receiving, this one actually serves a purpose. It's a part of nature, a reminder of her roots. But despite that fact, Kaguya doesn't keep it. She doesn't even take the opportunity to see her father work with bamboo like he did in the old days, an offer you'd think she'd immediately take her dad up on. You see, she knows what it feels like to be caged, to be controlled. She knows what it's like to be a princess. So Kaguya sets the bird free. Other suitors, hires up in society, race to meet her as soon as they hear word of her beauty. The governess tells Kaguya that marrying any one of them will ensure her a lifetime of happiness, but Kaguya is not ready for marriage. She's not ready to settle down just yet, especially not with someone she's never even met. For her father's sake, though, she speaks to the men. She sends them all away, of course, because none of them see her as anything more than an elegant treasure to be won. So in sending the noblemen off, she told them not to return without the rare treasures to which they compared her. For the first time, Kaguya really pushed back against her father's wishes, and actually paid off. Overjoyed by how she just turned the table on those fools, and hopeful that she may be able to escape this gloomy fate after all, she removes the paint from her teeth and decides to take a trip home to see the cherry blossoms, because spring's arriving in the forest. So maybe it's arriving for Kaguya, too. Do note, though, that this trip to see the trees is the first thing in some time that Kaguya is genuinely excited about, the first thing to really make her happy, yet her father refuses to tag along. The man that has been so adamant about making her happy is the very person going against her wishes here. Maybe this all hasn't been about Kaguya's well-being. So away Kaguya goes to see the cherry blossoms, to experience the spring she's been anticipating for so long. And the very moment she sees some, she orders the carriage to stop, and she runs all the way up the hill to gaze upon them. It truly is a sight to behold, and a childlike wonder fills her soul. Princesses aren't supposed to sweat or smile, the governess told her, but those rules are the furthest thing from her mind. As she begins to frolic around under the tree's branches, looking upwards at nature's beauty, for the first time in a long time she finally feels free. She finally feels that this is where she is supposed to be. This moment is so simple, so pure, and the sound of a baby's laughter further accentuates this fact. But then Kaguya bumps into the laughing child, knocking him over. His mother then bows before Kaguya and apologizes profusely. Even here, in her childhood home, she cannot escape her role in society. She cannot evade her father's ambitions for her. Spring may have returned to the forest, but winter still rages for Kaguya. So despite making the long journey home after so much time away, Kaguya, devoid of any sense of emotion, immediately leaves. Then on the way home, she runs into her childhood friend Stamaru, but all Kaguya's presence does is get him beat up. She begins to think that her father was right, that she, a princess, is not meant to reunite with her old friends ever again, because life has taken her down a far different path from which there is no going back. So all she can do is cry. Three years go by. Three years of quiet, lonely solitude away from that which she desires. During this time, the only way for her to find enjoyment in life is to work on her garden. This garden, which she has modeled after her childhood home, is her only form of escapism. But one day, she is called away from it to meet with one of the suitors she sent away three years ago, who claims to have the treasures she requested he find. A second suitor returns soon after, but of course, they both flaunted fakes. Then, after the third gave up on his quest, the fourth returns, not with the treasure he promised her, but rather with a roadside wildflower, a thing of a simpler yet infinitely more valuable beauty, much like Kaguya's. But that's just it. They all look at her like they do a roadside flower. They admire its beauty for a moment as they pluck it from the ground, but once it begins to shrivel away, they cast it aside. That is the fate of a princess. The end of the path Kaguya has been sent down, a path she can now see, was never meant for her. Kaguya then hears word that the fifth suitor died while in pursuit of the treasure she sent him to Kaguya resisted her fate, and all this resistance has wrought for her is the sweat of her suitors, the tears of her father, and the blood of this poor soul. It dawns on her that if she had just confined her life to that of a plucked flower, of a doll in its box, everyone else would have been happy. Instead, a man is now dead by her hand. Distraught, Kaguya destroys her garden, her only reminder of the good old days, her only source of pride and joy, and her only escape from the plans of her father. Her father, who then wants her to become one of the emperor's concubines. Not because it would make his daughter happy, because you see he knows it won't, but rather because it would elevate his social status. After all this effort on his part to make his daughter happy, the value of Kaguya's happiness equates solely to that of a cool new hat for him. But even now, even after all those thoughts of giving up on herself, of accepting her cruel fate, Kaguya can't do it. She keeps fighting anyways, even if that means death. Sanuki's quest to make his daughter into a princess most certainly began as an act of love, but it ended in selfishness. And realizing that, he tries to make amends by doing something nobody else in Japan had the guts to do. He turned down the emperor on Kaguya's behalf. There's a lesson to be learned here. It's easy to intertwine one's love for others with one's own desires for them. It's like they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Power is ever-corrupting, a truth shown perfectly by the actions of the emperor following Kaguya's refusal. True to his word in the ad I played earlier, the emperor tries to kidnap her, not before sexually harassing her. Terrified, Kaguya calls out to her people on the moon to rescue her, and they oblige, even after Kaguya manages to evade the emperor on her own. So despite never finding the happiness she has been seeking for so long, Kaguya realizes that her time is now short, because the moon people are on their way to from this world, and the pain and suffering that is found there. Kaguya leaves the capital and returns to her childhood home to gaze upon its beauty one final time. Here in the woods, away from the womanizing nobles and the worshipping commoners, perhaps she can finally have a moment of peace before the end. And this is when, once again, she runs into her childhood friend, Stemaru, the one person in the entire world who doesn't view her as a princess. To him, she's simply... And look at how happy she is to hear that. Before, it seemed impossible for Kaguya, a princess, to find genuine happiness in life. But Stemaru is proof that such a thought couldn't be further from the truth. Yes, the world is full of evils. It's full of men who see women as nothing more than a wildflower to be plucked from the ground and tossed aside. It's full of people who use societal standards and religious beliefs to pressure others into conforming to their will. The world is a selfish place, it's true. But this is not an absolute truth. Despite its inherent selfishness, the world remains a thing of beauty. There may be those who wish to confine this natural beauty to keep the lives of others in a constant state of winter. But at the same time, there are those like Stemaru who respect nature as well as the men and women in it, who are content living alongside the beauties of nature, who do not pluck the roadside flower and cast it aside once this beauty begins to fade. Rather, they leave the trees to heal so that someday, the cherry trees may blossom again and spring may finally return. That is the kind of life that Kaguya has yearned for all this time. But now, when finally having the opportunity to It's too late for her and Stemaru. Kaguya is expected to return to the moon just as Stemaru is expected to return to his family. Again, these familial bonds are pulling these childhood friends apart just as they did all those years ago. And sadly, there is nothing Kaguya or Stemaru can do to prevent their separation. But that doesn't stop them from trying. They know that it's a futile attempt, but even so, the two decide to run away together. And in the greatest shot of the entire film, Kaguya removes her royal robe, the symbol of the lifestyle she has been forced upon both here and on the moon. And she leaves it behind so that she may frolic in the field once again with her friend. She runs, she sweats, she laughs, and the pure bliss she experiences in this moment even leads her to take flight. She knows that this will last only for a anyways. But to quote Age of Ultron, Kaguya and Stemaru never did get their happily ever after. But who on earth ever does? Like I said before, the world is full of selfishness, and as shown by the tale of the princess Kaguya, this creates a great deal of suffering in our lives. Yet despite all her trials and tribulations, despite all the pain and sadness Kaguya experienced throughout her life, Kaguya resists leaving it all behind. Because even though the world is a dark place, there is still plenty of light to be found in it. Life will certainly continue to prove difficult for you, just as it did for Kaguya, just as it has for me. Perhaps you're stuck in a dead-end job, or perhaps your college major isn't something you particularly enjoy. Or maybe, you know, you're like me and you're taking Cal too. Or maybe your parents are trying to force their aspirations onto you. But don't let these trials and tribulations consume your life. It is possible to find happiness in this world, but you'll never find it until you try. So never give up. Never surrender. When life deals you a bad hand, answer back by being alive, so that someday, even if it's just for a moment, you'll know what it means to experience eudaimonia. You'll know what it means to be truly happy.