Short Thoughts on Lady Eboshi of Princess Mononoke

“Now watch closely, everyone. I’m going to show you how to kill a god.”

Filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki has perfected the multi-dimensional female hero. From plucky young girls growing up in the world, to older and more sophisticated women who contend with men, politics, and gods, Miyazaki’s portrayals of women are always examples of conviction, willpower, and heart-stirring complexity, and Lady Eboshi from Princess Mononoke (1997) is no exception.

When we first meet her, Eboshi is the apparent villain of the film. Main character Ashitaka is predisposed to blaming her for his curse; it was Eboshi, after all, who fired the gun that poisoned the Boar God who then went mad and almost destroyed Ashitaka’s village. It’s Eboshi who upsets the balance of nature by cutting deeper into the forests to mine the ore that fuels her Iron Town. Surely, if there is a villain, it must be this woman.

But things are never so simple. Over the course of the film, we learn that Eboshi, whose title 御前 (“Gozen”) reveals a noble background, offers honest work and shelter to outcasts, prostitutes and lepers. She builds a community free of the Emperor’s control and the strictures of feudal Japan. As a woman, entrepreneur, and warrior, there is no question that she is an outsider to be targeted. Similarly, because her goals are human betterment and opportunity, nature becomes her enemy as well. To Eboshi, the old gods are no different from the Emperor of Japan—they are part of an antiquated regime that oppresses her vision. Avoid them best she can, but if they cross her, Eboshi will strike back and hard. For this, the residents of Iron Town are apt to feel, as I do, that Eboshi is worth her word.

Lady Eboshi reminds me of humanity in all its complex and contradictory motions, and the grey areas of perspective between villainy and heroism. Hayao Miyazaki shows us how this is possible, and I thank him for it again and again.