Sometimes, a subtle creep that you feel from a mere landscape captures you more than anything else—or a sense of déjàvu drags you into feeling as if you have been reincarnated. There is something lying beneath the land where we commit sins, raise the hatchet, and destroy those like us. However, has anyone ever truly seen that holiness which lies beneath the soil? Perhaps the writer of this article does not even care about it. Yet this feeling—belonging to the vitality of life starting from the closest thing to us, the soil, and believing in its wisdom—has adorned rooted societies across different eras. Today, I am going to narrate the legacy of a faithful man whose success stems from his deep affection for the spirit of Mother Nature, which still keeps him inspired and alive.

Born in 1941 in Tokyo, Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator and manga artist. He co-founded Studio Ghibli in 1985 alongside Isao Takahata, who is renowned for his masterpiece Grave of the Fireflies (1988). As you might expect, I am not simply going to list his numerous career milestones. Instead, let us focus on his magical work.

First of all, I was introduced to Miyazaki through his most famous film, Spirited Away. His style of expressing the mundane through the magical was clear to me from the very first minute. Additionally, his perspective on humanity spoke for itself. Above all was the immense amount of labor dedicated to every single frame. At that point, the last thing needed for me to fully embrace his genius was the concept of diversity, which something many artists lose over time. However, diversity was also a vivid element of his art, like The Beatles or Picasso.

Miyazaki has created many distinct films to express similar ideas through different perspectives. Most interestingly, they resonate with audiences of all ages:

• He made millions of children believe in the spirits that sleep in forests through My Neighbor Totoro (1988).
• He crafted a lasting motto—“I’d rather be a pig than a fascist”—for many young people in Porco Rosso (1992).

• And mirrored a deep wound of his nation for millions through an anti-war stance in The Wind Rises (2013).

The key takeaway is that no matter what the central theme of a film—can be a picture of strong animist beliefs or a realistic, anti-war psychological drama—Hayao Miyazaki always emphasizes hope for humanism in the end. He achieves this much like literary giants such as Dostoevsky or Tolstoy, who maintained hope despite their painful depictions of life.

One of the most astonishing nuances of Miyazaki’s creativity is how he connects his personal experiences to his higher creative purposes. For instance, his family’s company, Miyazaki Airplane, had a profound impact on him—inspiring him to fictionalize a veteran pilot who is literally a pig and deeply exhausted by war. Furthermore, The Wind Rises was clearly inspired by his reflections on an aggrieved childhood, where he witnessed the harsh reality of disillusionment from the perspective of a defeated country with broken airplanes and so on.

There is no doubt that in a world where every spirit seems ready to sacrifice one another for their own benefit, Hayao Miyazaki will always stand on the side of peace anywhere in the world with all his heart, until his very last breath. Who knows? Perhaps the beauty of nature, forests, and mountains carries a touch of arrogance, just like human beings too. In any case, none of us know what happens after all these worldly struggles conclude. But at least those who strive for goodness—and continue to endure for even a slight hint of salvation with a wide smile on their face, like dear Hayao Miyazaki—will reap the fruits of their patience someday.

At the very least, hope is enough to keep that belief alive.

To our dear Grandpa, Hayao Miyazaki… with the hope of always remembering his wide smile!

Sincerely yours,

— Furqan