Editing Princess Mononoke (section)

=== Heterogeneity of society ===

[[File:Tama-Zenshoen Houses.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|The [[Tama Zenshoen Sanatorium]], which Miyazaki was inspired by during the production.{{sfn|Napier|2018|p=184}}|alt=A road lined with small houses.]]

Napier wrote that "the sense of a broken heterogeneous world is stridently manifest" within ''Princess Mononoke''.{{sfn|Napier|2005|p=232}} The film challenges popular cultural beliefs, such as the existence of a homogenous Japanese ethnicity ({{lang|ja-Latn|[[minzoku]]}}{{--)}}, by depicting social outcasts and peoples not of [[Yamato people|Yamato]] origin.{{sfn|Napier|2005|pp=232–233}} The Emishi people are related to the modern [[Ainu people]],{{sfnm|Napier|2005|1pp=234–235|Niskanen|2018|2pp=42–43}} and Miyazaki highlights this difference in the film: Ashitaka is immediately treated as a stranger at many of the villages he visits.{{sfn|Niskanen|2018|p=48}} The film scholar Eija Niskanen wrote that the film also critiques the {{lang|ja-Latn|[[Nihonjinron]]}}, a group of ethnonationalist theories about Japan that claim its culture is unique from others and depict the nation's people as uniform.{{sfn|Niskanen|2018|p=48}} The film scholar Shiro Yoshioka felt that the writing of [[Yoshihiko Amino]], another historical scholar, influenced Miyazaki's writing in this regard.{{sfn|Yoshioka|2018|p=30}} According to Denison, his explorations result in highly polarized characters and participants on both sides of the conflict becoming "monstrous".{{sfn|Denison|2018|p=2}} Miyazaki said that more recent historical studies had increasingly focused on the lifestyles of common people outside the nobility, many of which do not align with the theories of a {{lang|ja-Latn|minzoku}}.<ref>Cited in {{harvnb|Yoshioka|2018|pp=29–30}}.</ref> He was also inspired to portray people with leprosy after visiting the [[Tama Zenshoen Sanatorium]] near his home in Tokyo. He commented afterwards, "In the middle of no matter what kind of misery there is joy and laughter. In human life which tends toward ambiguity, I have never seen a place which shows this with such clarity."<ref>{{harvnb|Kanō|2006|p=201}}, cited in {{harvnb|Napier|2018|p=184}}.</ref>

Napier felt that the film proposes a possible future Japanese identity that highlights non-uniformity and the role of women.{{sfn|Napier|2005|p=232}} [[Toshio Suzuki]]{{nbsp}}– the film's producer and a longtime friend of Miyazaki's{{nbsp}}– stated that Miyazaki was a [[feminist]] and brought ideals of gender equality to his professional life as well as his fictional works.<ref>Cited in {{harvnb|McCarthy|2018|p=98}}.</ref> However, McCarthy felt that his prior portrayals of women were predicated in a fundamentally patriarchal worldview; Miyazaki's female characters succeed only when given the opportunity to in a society ultimately governed by men.{{sfn|McCarthy|2018|pp=98–99}} She argued that the protagonists Ashitaka and San were constructed incrementally through various predecessors in Miyazaki's works.{{sfn|McCarthy|2018|p=98}} His earlier films also portrayed young characters as able and driven to change the world, which is not continued here.{{sfn|Greenberg|2018|p=137}} San, according to Napier, is an "embodiment of Miyazaki's anger with what he increasingly perceived as a stupid and chaotic world."{{sfn|Napier|2018|p=183}} She also found San's early appearance in the film with a bloodstained face to create a vivid image of violence, wildness, and "aggressive sexuality that is confrontational rather than alluring."{{sfn|Napier|2005|pp=238–239}} McCarthy wrote that San is Miyazaki's only female protagonist to be entirely unbound from patriarchy, refusing to accept a domestic life even despite her love for Ashitaka.{{sfn|McCarthy|2018|p=99}} In a divergence from Miyazaki's previous works that close with clearly optimistic outlooks, the film ends in an ambiguous manner; the Forest Spirit's death revives nature, but the wild forests remain felled,{{sfn|Napier|2018|p=194}} and Ashitaka and San do not stay together but agree to occasionally meet.{{sfn|Napier|2005|p=236}}

Napier felt that the film's conflicting philosophies do not facilitate the inclusion of an antagonist of a similar kind to the Count from ''The Castle of Cagliostro'' or Muska from ''[[Castle in the Sky]]''{{nbsp}}(1986).{{sfn|Napier|2018|p=177}} Eboshi's initial characterization sets her in the role of a villain: the belligerent of the environmental conflict and the cause of Nago's demonic corruption.{{sfn|Vernon|2018|p=117}} However, this impression is repeatedly challenged by depictions of her leadership and caregiving qualities; the community of Irontown holds sincere respect for her, and her sheltering of former prostitutes and people affected by leprosy contravenes many traditional roles of femininity.{{sfnm|Napier|2005|1p=240|2a1=Odell|2a2=Le Blanc|2y=2009|2p=110|Vernon|2018|3pp=118–119}} Miyazaki's depictions of female characters working on iron and people with leprosy manufacturing weapons are considerable departures from historical views.{{sfn|Napier|2018|p=184}} Napier emphasized that the decision to place a female character in this leadership position prevents her stance from being viewed as a cliché of oppressive militarism or the interpretation of technology as inherently detrimental.{{sfn|Napier|2005|pp=240–241}} She wrote that Eboshi can be viewed as a tragic character because she is not evil but is forced to become an aggressor to safeguard her progressive community.{{sfn|Napier|2005|p=241}} Although Eboshi and San represent diametrically opposed views, they share many leadership and nurturing characteristics,{{sfn|Vernon|2018|p=119}} and the scholar Alice Vernon examined the relationship between the two as a symbiotic one, where Eboshi represents a possible future image of San.{{sfn|Vernon|2018|p=127}}