| 1. | (25 posts) | The Motivations of Jigo |
We looked at 77 posts by 39 different contributors.
Not much activity on the list after Tuesday's events. The bulk of the week's traffic took place in one thread, a very tough thread to summerize to boot.
As mentioned last week, the thread about Jigo and Ashitaka spilled over into this week. Andrew Osmond and Robin Casady carried out a huge tit-for-tat conversation, each message spanning over 150+ lines. One of the points (there were several) of contention was if Jigo felt that he'd "owed" Ashitaka for "rescuing" him from the battle in the village. The argument seemed hopelessly bogged down in the various translation (dubtitles/subtitles/etc), then Julio Gea-Banacloche posted a mini-translation, "This is what I see in the film comic:
Ashitaka (same line, expressing regret that he killed two men).
Jiko: Hito wa izure shinu. Osoi ka, hayai ka, dake da. Okage de sessou wa tasukatta.
"Everybody dies eventually. It's just (whether one dies) sooner or later. You did save the life of this humble servant of Buddha." (my
dictionary's translation for "sessou")
I interpret it this way: "Don't worry about having killed those two men, since everybody has to die anyway, sooner or later. You saved
my life, that's what counts (to me at any rate)". . .
I believe that his main motivation to seek out Ashitaka is simple curiosity, but, since Jiko is, fundamentally, a user, his curiosity must always have a strong component of self-interest. "Look, it's that amazing warrior, I'd like to know more about him; he came in handy once, I wonder if he might come in handy again in the future...?". . . , as far as I can tell; I don't think Jiko has any definite plans for Ashitaka at all, it's just that once he knows that he is looking for Tatara-ba, and assuming (not a far-fetched assumption) that he might very well find the way on his own, he might as well be a little helpful now so that, should they meet again, it might be on relatively friendly terms.
In short, it's "enlightened self-interest." It makes sense to be nice to people who may one day be able to do something for you.
Tom Wilkes interjected with his view of the translation process.
Robin replied, "I'm surprised that the DVD completely leaves out Jiko's (or Jigo's, or whatever it is) life being saved and says you saved me that task. Makes a significant difference. . . In being helpful, Jiko had a choice. He could have said something like, Hmm, an iron ball. That probably comes from Iron Town. The boars attacked them.
I think we can be sure that Jiko knows all about the iron ball. He provided Eboshi with rifles (or was it riflemen?) at an earlier point. He is probably aware of the battle between Iron Town and the Boars. He pretends he doesn't know anything about the ball. There has to be a reason for that. I'm guessing that he didn't want Ashitaka meeting Eboshi. Perhaps he felt it would distract her from what he wants her to do.
Andrew and Robin continued with a brief discussion about Ashitaka's path and whether or not Jigo wanted him to see Iron Town or the forest first. No solid conclusion drawn, but lots of speculating!
A mini-thread started by Sharon Westfall, "Why even say he's a monk, though? He's just a guy that got saved when Ashitaka interceded and he should leave it at that. I mean, he's on a mission that's not very monk-like anyway."
Andrew replied, "Why not? Don't see a problem, unless you're insisting that Jiko is incapable of wasting a _single_ word."
Sharon sent back, "It's just my opinion that Jiko throws in his monk status when trying to manipulate credibility from strangers. Once you get to know him, you know he's phoney. "...I'm just a simple monk..." yeah, right...."
Robin added, "His mission is not typical of a monk to western eyes. However, from the anime and live-action Japanese films I've seen, there seems to be a stereotype of the unscrupulous monk on a mission for materialistic ends."
Michael Wojcik closed off with, "His mission looks typical for a "western" monk for any time period up until the formation of modern nation-states. The Church had its employees involved in all sorts of things, including undercover missions for heads of state. While I agree Jiko matches a standard type, it's not one unique to Japanese film or particularly rare in history. . .
he's disappointed that his scheme failed, but he's also impressed and even a bit amused, I think, by Ashitaka's determination. He's not the moustachio-twirling curses-foiled-again type. He's more complicated and realistic than that.
Kenton Knop spotted a Schick (the razor people) promotion with a car as the grand prize. But not any old car, a Fiat 500 from "The Castle of Cagliostro". Ryoko Toyama hears about a Miyazaki-directed commercial for Lawson. Ryoko also posted details for the Japanese release of "Mononoke Hime" DVD on November 21. "Sen" breaks the domestic movie audience record set by "Mononoke Hime". Marc Hairston reminded people that now is the time to pre-order the 2002 Studio Ghibli calendar. Anthony Johnson posted a link to some neato UK marketing for "Princess Mononoke". More admission info for the Ghibli Museum from Toru KUMAGAI.
I'd much rather deal with several shorter threads! See you next week.