Religion Reflection and Transformation in Japanese Video Games

The paper was originally a final assignment of Games 101 class at NYU

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          Shinto is the oldest and primal religion of Japan. Its ways of thinking are an important part of the Japanese mindset. It is about expressing one’s love of the natural landscape of the world, the people, and spirits that reside within it. We see this value not only in various Japanese anime and manga but also in many Japanese video games. The technology of today paves a new path for the native beliefs to thrive at home and abroad.

          This essay will take a geographic lens in Japan, explore the significance of Shinto to its people, and analyze how two world-renowned Japanese video games series The Legend of Zelda and Pokémon express the Shinto in different ways.

Shinto

Japan's geography influences the development of its society, culture, and religion. Japan is mainly in a mild and humid climate zone, where the changes of the seasons are clear. This type of climate is ideal for growing a rice farming based culture. So people living in this country are sensitive to changes in seasons. This behavior gradually fosters the national characteristic of being very sensitive to nature (Heinrich, “Japan's Geography”). Due to a fault that circles the Pacific Ocean, earthquakes are regular here. Therefore, while the Japanese people love nature, they fear and revere it. What's more, being an isolated island country surrounded by the sea, Japan's contact with other races is restricted to some extent, and in addition to the previously mentioned characteristics, Shinto, the oldest and primal national religion was born (Nomura, “Japanese View of Nature”).

          Shinto believes that the material world is alive with spirits. Meaning the way of gods, Shinto involves the worship of kami, which can be translated as gods or sacred spirits. And outside the sacred space of kami there exist yokai, supernatural beings which for whatever reason are not considered to be kami. Some kami and yokai are very local as the genius of a particular place, but others represent primary natural objects and processes (Ono and Woodard 7). For example, Amaterasu Omikami, the Sun goddess, Fujin, the god of wind, and Raijin, the god of lightning and thunder. Shinto also focuses on ritual practices, followers worship kami at shrines. Purification rites and physical cleanliness are also a vital part of Shinto, serving to placate any restive kami (9).

          Shinto's beliefs and ways of thinking are deeply embedded in the subconscious fabric of modern Japanese society. They affect not only those who identify as Shinto practitioners but the entire Japanese culture (Rambelli 10). One influential impact is people's love and reverence for nature. Another is ritualism. Japan is a ritualistic society, even in the simplest of things like customary bows or the set phrases used without fail to greet or address a customer in a shop or restaurant. Many creators who are not kami worshipers still reflect Shinto's value to some extent in their work. Master animator Hayao Miyazaki does not believe in Shinto but respects it and reflects the environmental convictions in his films such as Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Princess Mononoke, and My Neighbor Totoro. (“Spirits, gods and pastel paints: The weird world of master animator Hayao Miyazaki”).

Shinto in Gaming

Similar to Miyazaki applying Shinto in his animation films, Japanese game designers and developers refer to the religion in video game design as well. In this way, Shinto has a connection to the virtual world and players learn the value of Shinto through gaming. I call this aesthetic techno-Shinto, which imbues digital technologies with a spirit or soul.

          When thinking about the relationship between games and their socio-cultural context, game designer Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman argue that all games reflect culture and some even have the potential to transform culture (Salen and Zimmerman 507). I think it is also true of religions in gaming. Techno-Shinto can be of reflection, reproducing aspects of the religious context. It can also transform religion, acting on the context to affect genuine change.

Legend of Zelda: The Reflection of Shinto. Shigeru Miyamoto, the original creator of The Legend of Zelda, has spoken about the influence of growing up near Kyoto and getting lost while exploring the woods, shrines, and lakes of the surrounding countryside (Dewinter 14). The way he chose to express these memories in The Legend of Zelda games was more than mere nostalgia; it was in the guise of Shinto.

          First, it reflects the ritual aspect. In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild there are religious shrines throughout its freely explorable world. Some encourage players to drop an offering, usually an apple, prompting a spirit named Korok to appear – a reference to Kodama, the mountain and tree kami.

          More than that, the Shinto idea also arrives in the exploration of the virtual nature world. The protagonist Link gains information through the forest guardian Great Deku Tree and focuses on target with the help of a spirit character Navi in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (15). The idea of divinity manifest in nature that the player must interact with is a driving force in the games, with its wise trees and spirit characters.

          Storytelling is an important part of action-adventure games, and there is a trace of Shinto in the narrative of The Legend of Zelda games. In Shinto mythology, the creation of the world was the responsibility of three kami and that there are three relics. First, a sacred sword representing the virtue of power. Second, a sacred mirror representing the virtue of wisdom, and third a curved jewel representing benevolence (20). Similarly, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has the same three virtues and three relics, and the goal is to collect them all. First, the master sword, a sacred sword. Second, the mirror shield, a sacred mirror. Then there are many curved jewels that you collect throughout the game. The story of the franchise takes the player from one temple to the next, each temple containing an enemy. The player uses the power of the kami to defeat the enemy. The narrative arcs also draw on Shinto ideas of purification, as the hero Link experiences the cyclical rebirth in the series.

Pokémon: The Transformation of Shinto. Pokémon owes much of its conception to creator Satoshi Tajiri’s childhood love of bug collecting, but the mythology and animist religious history of Japan also provided rich inspiration. But unlike The Legend of Zelda, the Pokémon games approach Shinto differently. They are both reflection and transformation.

As a role-playing game series, Pokémon refers to Shinto in the character design and gameplay mechanics. Many Pokémon bear a strong resemblance to yokai or kami. For instance, the water Pokémon Whiscash represents Namazu, a catfish yokai who causes earthquakes, and Drowzee, based on another yokai with a habit of eating dreams called Baku. Meanwhile, there are also Pokémon which come from natural materials and forces. Take Tornadoes and Thunderous for example, these two types of Pokémon are inspired by the wind kami Fujin and thunder kami Raijin. And when the Pokémon is in the Pokémon ball, it returns to the form of a blue lighting sphere, a reflection of the Shinto idea that everything possesses a spirit.

          And Pokémon: Go transforms Shinto and creates new meaning beyond it. Combined with augmented reality technology, it blurs the border of the virtual space and reality. After the game’s release, tens of thousands of people have taken to roaming the streets, interacting with invisible beings that now inhabit apartments, cities, and nature. These fanatics speak in a special language, undertake hours of devotional activity, and together experience moments of great joy and great sorrow (Gould, “Pokémon Go feels like a religion”). It reboots the global pop culture phenomenon and religious conversion. Shinto is embedded in commodity consumerism, where emotive ties between people and nature spirits are used to push products. But it is equally a means of fighting the dislocation of modern life by allowing consumers to create meaning, connection, and intimacy in their daily routine. Shinto now resides alongside contemporary capitalism. Pokémon Go is already entangled in a market economy, with pay-to-skip in-app purchases on offer.

Conclusion

No game is an island. Games are always produced somewhere, by someone, for some reason or another. They exist within a context and an environment; hence they reflect the values of its surrounding and the beliefs of its creator, like The Legend of Zelda reflects Japanese native religion Shinto. And they also have the potential to transform the social, cultural, and religious contexts, to take on a life of their own outside the framework of game play, like Pokémon starts its unique Pokémon culture based on Shinto ways of thinking.

          And we should not consider religion as opposed to contemporary technology. In common terms, religion is ancient, transcendent and sacred, invoking the intangible realms of morality and belief, while technology is mechanical, material, modern and profane. But the truth is, they have a positive and close relationship with each other. Religion can rely on the latest technology to spread the gospel, while technology can create new meaning and phenomenon.

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Dewinter, Jennifer. Shigeru Miyamoto: Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda. Bloomsbury Academic & Professional, 2015.

Ono, Sokyo and William P. Woodard. Shinto: The Kami Way. Rutland, Vt., C.E. Tuttle, 1962.

Rambelli, Fabio. Spirits and Animism in Contemporary Japan: The Invisible Empire. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2019.

Salen, Ketie and Eric Zimmerman. Rules of Play. The MIT Press, 2004.