Pinoy Roadtrip: TOKYO: Where to Find the World of Miyazaki's Spirited Away at the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Museum

January 8, 2020

TOKYO: Where to Find the World of Miyazaki's Spirited Away
at the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Museum

There are several places claiming to be the setting of Hayao Miyazaki's famous film Spirited Away. One of them is Jiufen in Taipei. But an interview with Hayao Miyazaki in May 2001 by Animage, a Japanese anime and entertainment magazine, finally confirmed from his own words that the world he sought to recreate in Spirited Away was a world depicted at the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Museum.

The transcript of the interview is shown below:

(full text at An Interview with Hayao Miyazaki Animage, May 2001 Translated to English by Ryoko Toyama Edited by Team Ghiblink)

Why did you set the story in the present time?

M: It's a world like this Edo Tokyo Tatemonoen (Edo Tokyo Museum, Building Park*) rather than our modern world. I've always been interested in the pseudo-Western-style buildings** you can find here. I feel nostalgic here, especially when I stand here alone in the evening, near closing time, and the sun is setting--tears well up in my eyes. (laughs)

*Edo Tokyo Tatemonoen: A park with Japanese houses and shops from the Meiji and Taisho era (about 120 to 70 years ago). Miyazaki-San loves the park and often visits there. The interview took place in the park.

**Pseudo-Western style - A style of Japanese architecture in the early Meiji era. It's a mixture of traditional Japanese design and Western design.

I think we have forgotten the life, the buildings, and the streets we used to have not so long ago. I feel that we weren't so weak...for example, a life in that house you see there (pointing at one of the buildings in the park) was a modest one. They ate a small amount of food, enough to fit on a small table in a tiny room. Everyone thinks our problems today are the big problems we have for the first time in the world. But I think we just aren't used to them, what with the recession and all. Well, it's enough since everyone is talking about these current problems. Rather, let's cheer up (laughs). I'm making a film with such a feeling.