To commemorate the new availability of Hayao Miyazaki & Studio Ghibli films on streaming services, I did a new translation and arrangement of the theme song Kimi Wo Nosete and an analysis of the movie Castle In The Sky.
I also performed Kimi Wo Nosete on Radio RRR in Melbourne as part of a Japanese Songs In Translation segment. I’ve also translated other Miyazaki /Joe Hisaishi collaborations including the lyrics from the Mononoke theme song.
We’ve also got Japanoscope galleries of Studio Ghibli Posters, Plushies and socks.
Kimi ni nosete Japanese Version
Kimi Ni Nosete English Translated Version
Live version on RRR radio
About the Movie
I’m going to assume you’ve seen the movie already. And that you know that it is about a girl from a mysterious race of people trying to get back to a mysterious world in the sky, Laputa, with the help of a peasant boy, whose father was also looking for the same mysterious land. So much mysterious.
I won’t go into detail recounting the whole adventure and each of the sprawling cast of diabolical, larger than life characters. But let me touch on a few of the things I think are interesting.
Image by Thomas: https://www.flickr.com/photos/t_p_s/
Movie Themes
Flight
Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tranquangdinhtue/
Laputa is one of many of writer/director Miyazaki Hayao’s films that deal with flight. There’s probably not a film of his where someone doesn’t take to the sky at some point. If you don’t believe me, watch this cut-up of flying scenes from Miyazaki films put together by Fandor:
In the video, you also see footage of Miyazaki playing with model airplanes. It’s nice to see that this notorious workaholic, who creates fantastic worlds for children, really is a kid at heart. Included in the models is the (in)famous Mitsubishi Zero (a 零戦 Reisen in Japanese). These planes struck fear into the hearts of many allied citizens and soldiers, not least of which when these flying machines were used as Kamikaze suicide bombs.
Martial heland / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)
Hayao Miyazaki’s father was an engineer who worked on the Zero fighters.
You can see how the aeroplane, and flight more generally, has influenced his work and become such a major motif.
In the Fandor video above, there is an excerpt of Miyazaki talking about his own, his family’s, and indeed humanity at large’s, relationship with the aeroplane. Flying machines were, and are, a symbol of humanity’s ability to transcend its surroundings. Bill Bryson vividly describes in his fantastic book One Sumer: America 1927 how, when Charles Lindbergh completed the first transatlantic flight from New York to Paris, he was greeted by no less than 100,000 parisians. It was as if an alien hand touched down from Mars.
In the Fandor video, Miyazaki also talks about how the technology of flight, developed by those with noble intent, inevitably gets swept up in the prevailing winds of the time and ends up being used for evil. Evil, like the aeroplanes that his dad worked on were used for.
For the Miyazaki, the struggle between innate human ingenuity and human depravity is personal.
This yin-yang style dark and light human coexistence is perhaps even parralled by the darker, Nazi sympathising tendencies of global aviation hero Lindbergh himself.
So in Castle In The Sky Laputa, as in many of his films, flight becomes a symbol both of man’s ability to transcend his mortal surroundings, and of technology’s shocking abilities to unleash man’s basest violent instincts.
Filial Piety
This family connection leads into another major theme in Castle In The Sky, the relationship between child and parent. The idea of filial piety, which wikipedia defines as a virtue of respect for one’s parents, elders, and ancestors is seen in the loving affection that main characters Pazu and Sheeta hold for their deceased parents. Indeed, Pazu is driven by the desire to vindicate his father’s life mission, to prove the existence of the mythical land of Laputa. Pazu is out to redeem his father’s honour in the eyes of the world.
Sheeta’s memories revolve strongly around the teachings of her mother and the desire to do right in her eyes. The idea of a mythic people who are guardians of a magical other world is connected to the Confusian ideals of respect, even deification, of ancestors. The ancestors even have a magical stone that they pass down through the generations that functions as a special ticket to their exclusive world. How does it get you there? Through the medium of flight of course, this time pure and unadulterated by the need for mechanical devices, technology or gadgetry.
The ticket only works if you have the right blood though. Ancestors, families, look after their own.
Mothers
By Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton – Art Renewal Center – description, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1669517
Castle in the Sky Laputa was released around two years after the death of Miyazaki’s mother. Maternal themes and mother figures permeate the film. It is hard to imagine that Miyazaki wasn’t using his art to work through his own personal loss at this time.
Take a look at the character of the boss-mother of the pirate gange in Castle in the Sky. How much of Miyazaki’s own mother’s character can be found here? Captain Dola, is strong and commanding, but also compassionate and warm.
Miyazaki’s mother is said to have been of weak constitution, and had spinal tuberculosis in the post-war years 1947-55. This means Hayao’s mother was gravely ill for much of his formative childhood years. Perhaps it is not surprising that orphan characters feature prominently in this and other of his films. Hayao has first-hand experience of the fear of being a motherless child from a young age.
Through this prism, we can perhaps start to see Castle In The Sky as being something of an elegy to his long suffering and recently departed mother.
Environment
The environmental themes that feature strongly in this film and other Miyazaki themes also delve into the concept of Mother-Earth. Miyazaki seems to be mourning not just for his own mother’s loss, but for the loss of the innocence of the world. I’m reminded of the sentiment in songs such as Bill Callahan’s “Oh do I feel like the mother of the world, with two children fighting”. Would Miyazaki agree with Bill when he drops “God is a word, and the argument ends there”?
There is a not-so-subtle reference to the ultimate symbol of man’s unhealthy obsession with technology, the nuclear bomb. Towards the end of the film we see a mushroom cloud that has tremendous cultural and historic resonance and power for a people the victim of two atomic bomb attacks. In this way, Miyazaki continues a strong tradition of referencing, unpacking and analysing nuclear and apocalyptic themes in Japanese films and storytelling. Godzilla was created by nuclear testing in the oceans, Akira features an apocalyptic explosion destroying Tokyo and Tezuka Osamu returned to themes of war and technology throughout his career.
About the song Kimi Wo Nosete 君をのせて
Translation
| Original Lyrics | Literal Translation | Singing Translation |
| あの地平線 輝くのは どこかに君をかくしているから |
The reason the horizon shines is that it hides you out there somewhere. | Out on the horizon There’s something shining bright In the place you try to hide In someplace and in sometime |
| たくさんの灯がなつかしいのは あのどれかひとつに 君がいるから |
The reason the lights are nostalgic is that you are there | There are so many lights And the warmth I feel inside Is there because there’s one Out there that’s yours alone |
| さあ でかけよう ひときれのパン ナイフ ランプ かばんにつめこんで |
Put a piece of bread, a knife and a lamp in your bag and let’s depart. | Put into your bag A knife and put a lamp A piece of bread, I’ll meet you there It’s time for us to go |
| 父さんが残した 熱い想い 母さんがくれた あのまなざし |
The burning thought left by the father. The look the mother gave. |
The burning love That your father left That gentle gaze, shows your mother is not dead |
| 地球はまわる 君をかくして 輝く瞳 きらめく灯 |
The Earth turns and hides you The shining eye, the twinkling light |
The world it turns around It hides you from me now The shining of your eyes In the sparkling of the lights |
| 地球はまわる 君をのせて いつかきっと出会う ぼくらをのせて |
The Earth turns around and carries you. It will carry us, who will one day certainly be united. |
The world it turns around You ride it through the night Sometime we’ll meet again And we’ll ride together |
| さあ でかけよう ひときれのパン ナイフ ランプ かばんにつめこんで |
Put a piece of bread, a knife and a lamp in your bag and let’s depart. | Put into your bag A knife and put a lamp A piece of bread, I’ll meet you there It’s time for us to go |
| 父さんが残した 熱い想い 母さんがくれた あのまなざし |
The burning thought left by the father. The look the mother gave. |
The burning love That your father left That gentle gaze, shows your mother is not dead |
| 地球はまわる 君をかくして 輝く瞳 きらめく灯 地球はまわる 君をのせて いつかきっと出会う ぼくらをのせて |
The Earth turns and hides you The shining eye, the twinkling light The turns around and carrys you. It will carry us, who will one day certainly be united. |
The world it turns around It hides you from me now The shining of your eyes In the sparkling of the lights The world it turns around You ride it through the night Sometime we’ll meet again And we’ll ride together |
Boungawa / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)
Background to Kimi Wo Nosete
So if we are going to see the film Castle In The Sky as ode to a dearly departed mother, it makes sense to analyse the song Kimi Wo Nosete through the same prism.
Kimi Wo Nosete Lyrics Writing Process
Producer of the film and long time Miyazaki collaborator Isao Takahata has said that the song lyrics were made when he and composer Joe Hisaishi asked Miyazaki to give them some rough notes on what the song was about:
“When we looked over the scrawled notes, we were amazed to find the words seemed to just fit with the music we had”. And even though the composer and producer did some nipping and tucking of the words here and there, the lyric credit goes to Miyazaki himself. We can assume that the words are something of a personal, direct expression of what Miyazaki wanted to express in the film overall.
Relationship Between Kimi Wo Nosete Lyrics and Miyazaki’s Parents
So, on one level, the song is about two characters in the Laputa film, Pazu and Sheeta, and how Pazu is trying to find Sheeta somewhere out there to bring her to safety.
But on another level you could interpret the song as Laputa creator Miyazaki Hayao singing to his recently deceased mother.
Castle in the Sky Laputa was released around two years after the death of Miyazaki’s mother. Maternal themes and mother figures permeate the film. It is hard to imagine that Miyazaki wasn’t using his art to work through his own personal loss at this time. Indeed, he would return to similar themes pretty frequently, most notably in the character of the bedridden mother in Totoro.
Take a look at the character of the boss-mother of the pirate gang in Castle in the Sky. How much of Miyazaki’s own mother’s character can be found here? Captain Dola is strong and commanding, but also compassionate and warm.
Miyazaki’s mother is said to have been of weak constitution, and had spinal tuberculosis in the post-war years 1947-55. This means Hayao’s mother was gravely ill for much of his formative childhood years. Perhaps it is not surprising that orphan characters feature prominently in this and other of his films. Hayao has first-hand experience of the fear of being a motherless child from a young age.
Through this prism, we can perhaps start to see Castle In The Sky as being something of an elegy to his long suffering and recently departed mother.
Ambiguity of language Kimi Wo Nosete
One of the challenges of deciphering the words to the song is the ambiguous nature of Japanese expression. The Japanese language, as a matter of everyday usage, leaves out subjects and objects, vital bits of information, in a way that is inconceivable in English. Usually, this is information that is obvious from context. To give a simple everyday example:
熱いね Atsui ne would be translated as It’s hot.
More literally though, this sentence would be translated as “Hot, eh?”
What’s hot? You, me, that thing over there, this thing here? No, the weather is hot. Which is obvious from the context.
Yet this same inherent ambiguity can be exploited for artistic means. How many times have you heard a songwriter say “it’s open to interpretation”? The phrase is a cliche.
Kimi Ni Nosete leaves plenty of room for interpretation.
First of all, it’s not clear whose perspective the song is written from and two, who are the singer and singee in songwriting parlance.
The chorus is impossible to translate into English exactly as it is written in Japanese.
Fathers and Mothers in Kimi Wo Nosete
父さんが残した 熱い想い
母さんがくれた あのまなざし
Even a rendering such as this:
The burning thought left by the father.
The look the mother gave.
Says too much. We don’t know if it’s Your father, my father, our father, their father, the father or a father. The Japanese language doesn’t force us to specify, and the lyric chooses not to. Ditto the mother.
Given the context of the song with the film, I think it is safe to say that the main suggested perspective for the song is of Pazu singing to Sheeta. Which still leaves open possibilities for interpreting the father and mother of the chorus being those of either of the two main characters. Or perhaps one of each? Given the highlighted relationships in the film, it would seem valid to say that the “burning thought” in question is Pazu’s father dream of proving the existence of Laputa and that the “look the mother gave” is the watchful gaze of Sheeta’s mother looking down from the heavens.
Yet there are other interpretations. If we are saying that the film is Miyazaki’s ode to his parents, and especially his mother, then we could take it that the father and mother of the chorus are his own. Or we could go more universal and link in with the environmental message of the film. Perhaps the father and mother are the elemental father and mother of the world?
I like to think that it is a combination of all these things rolled into one. Even if the songwriters didn’t write it that way, it is possible for songs to take on extra layers of meanings as they unfold, especially as they intertwine and interact with the melody and harmony of the music.
Light
There is a strong Light motif running through the song. That’s “Light motif” rather than “leitmotif” for you music boffins. Kanji with fire radicals appear in the song several times. We’ve got the loan word for “Lamp” in there. We’ve got words meaning shining, sparkling and burning.
We’ve got 輝く瞳 きらめく灯 “the shining pupil and the sparkling lamp”. Almost every line has a kanji related to light, shining or fire in some way.
Even the chorus
父さんが残した 熱い想い
母さんがくれた あのまなざし
The burning thought left by the father.
The look the mother gave.
Is on fire.
The light theme in the song highlights similar, perhaps less prominent, themes in the movie. We have the shining flight stone, beams of light crossing the sky showing the way to the promised land, the devastating beams of light let forth by the fallen robot of Laputa, the fires caused by the battle between the robot and the forces of humanity. The film itself is drawn in bright, summery tones. But the song seems to be all the more luminescent in its imagery. Was Miyazaki trying to bring out the brightness of the film using music? Perhaps he felt it wasn’t shining enough? It is interesting to note how bright the mise-en-scene is really, considering some of the themes of loss and lonesomeness the film addresses.
We’ve written more about Japanese lighting here
Image: Peter Head https://japanoscope.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0
The song takes a bird’s eye, perhaps god’s eye view, of the film. Whoever is singing the song is looking at the horizon, the turning of the earth, the lights of the world. What better perspective is there to bring to a conclusion a film with such universal themes.
Who wrote and sang Castle In The Sky Laputa’s theme song Kimi Ni Nosete?
Hayao Miyasaki
Azumi inoue
The music for Kimi Ni Nosete was written by Hisaishi Joe to words by Hayao Miyazaki and was sung by Azumi Inoue. Azumi also sang classic Ghibli songs such as the theme and walking songs from the My Neighbour Totoro and Meguru Kisetsu from Kiki’s Delivery Service.
Hisaishi Joe is a classically trained composer, conductor and producer. Watch this video of him playing the Kimi Ni Nosete with a choir of 800 voices and try not to feel a lump in your throat:
Castle In The Sky Merch
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Castle In The Sky Papercraft Display
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Who is behind this site?
I’m Peter Joseph Head. I lived in Japan for four years as a student at Kyoto City University of the Arts doing a Masters Degree, have toured the country six times playing music and speak Japanese (JLPT N1). I’ve written songs in Japanese and have released several albums through Tokyo label Majikick Records.
ピータージョセフヘッドです。4年間京都市立芸大の大学院として日本に住み、６回日本で音楽ツアーをし、日本語能力試験で１級を取得しました。要するに日本好きです。
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