Foreword: Telling the story of a genius, there are always extraordinary experiences that cannot be told, but the story of a person who was forgotten before his death is always silent. Kenji No Haru is a 1996 anime directed by Masaharu Kawamori to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Kenji Miyazawa's birth.
Many readers in China may not be familiar with Kenji Miyazawa, and not many have even heard of his name. But in Japan, Kenji Miyazawa is a well-known poet and fairy tale writer, as well as an agricultural instructor and educator. During his lifetime, he published the poetry collection "Spring and Shura" and the fairy tale collection "The Renovated Hotel", which were rarely popular during his lifetime, and did not attract the attention of the literary circles and society until after his death.
It can be said that many modern and contemporary Japanese artists grew up reading Kenji Miyazawa's fairy tales. For example, Miyazaki is very respectful of Mr. Kenji, and in "Spirited Away" refers to the scene depicted by Mr. Kenji in "Night of the Galactic Railway"; the modern fairy tale writer Naoko Aboya is also very fond of Kenji Miyazawa's fairy tales and is deeply influenced by his works.
The cartoon "The Spring of Kenji" presents the short life of Mr. Kenji Miyazawa with compassion as his heart, his mission in life with bitter behavior, and knowledge as a weapon, exploring life and realizing his own value in the process of benefiting the people.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > teachers who have been martyred for ideals</h1>
Kenji Miyazawa was born into a barren family and was supposed to inherit the family business as the new owner of the family pawnshop, but he was obsessed with poetry and fairy tale writing, and went to the publishing house to fight for the publication of his unpopular works.
After unsuccessfully seeking publication, Kenji, who had unlimited sympathy for the working people since he was a child because he witnessed the miserable life of the peasants, returned to his hometown to work as a rural teacher, and at the same time published his own poetry collection at his own expense, but did not sell a single copy.
Seeing the backwardness of agriculture in his hometown, Kenji resolutely resigned from his position as a teacher and returned to the hidden fields to specialize in agricultural technology. In addition to his love of literature, Kenji also enjoys wandering in nature to collect mineral plants and make insect specimens, and is also keen on philosophical and Buddhist books, which give Kenji the strength to fight for human life and the driving force for his constant pursuit of the meaning of beautiful things.
He farmed during the day and gave lessons to farmers at night, explaining agricultural knowledge, teaching English, telling stories, giving concerts, and he brought every minute and second of his life to life to the fullest. In the last five years of his life, due to overwork, Kenji Miyazawa, who was only 37 years old, died prematurely after contracting lung disease due to nutritional disorders.
Like Van Gogh, Kenji Miyazawa's unpopular literary works were regarded as classics after his death, and were stored side by side in language textbooks with masterpieces such as Natsume Soseki, and countless film and television works were adapted.
There is no denying the value of Kenji Miyazawa's works, but for his posthumous name that has been put on the altar and praised, it always gives people an indescribable sense of loneliness.
How a person survives before he dies is his own business, but after death, just like after the film was filmed, it did not only belong to the director, under the large number of interpretations, Kenji Miyazawa may not be the original Kenji.
Fortunately, "The Spring of Kenji" restores an ordinary Kenji Miyazawa, and at the same time interprets another intriguing Kenji Miyazawa. Kenji's life experience looks a bit like a rich man's son embracing the romantic feelings and ideals of not eating human fireworks, and after tasting human fireworks, he began to kill himself for the ideal.
But Kenji Miyazawa is different from aristocratic nihilists such as Osamu Dazai and Yukio Mishima, and unlike kulakyo industrialists such as Ryoma Sakamoto and Isamu Kondo, he is not a trendsetter of the times, nor does he have the ambition to point out the country, but only has a limited writing talent, a sad and compassionate mood, and a pure heart that has never been contaminated by the world.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, the philosophical aesthetics behind fairy tales</h1>
Kenji Miyazawa's short lifelong depression may be blamed on his era— the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when Meiji, Taisho, and Showa were frequently changed, and such an era was destined to create heroes, not hermits.
Or perhaps, it is to blame Kenji's ideal of not being able to be involved in the politics of the times, but while others are running for the chaotic life, he is writing about railways, forest fields and rainbow moons, imagining flying out of the window in a cloak like the wind and saburo in his pen.
Kenji is not willing to be a quiet hermit or even an ordinary shengdou small people, he wants to achieve something, such as publishing his own poetry collection, naïvely wanting to open up a pure land in a turbulent society, but that book is as far away as a looming star, let alone resonate with others.
Kenji's fantasy world is wonderful, but the work is not cared about, the cheerful tune in the film reveals an indescribable sadness, and the strong contrast further renders the gap between ideal and reality, heaven and hell.
As the friend who retreated from his childhood ideals into the torrent of reality said, "You are so naïve, as if you were walking on a cloud, an idealistic cloud." Kenji Miyazawa, who was pulled down from the clouds by reality, wanted to rely on Huang Tianhou to teach farmers scientific agricultural techniques, and his life choices that transcended common sense were difficult for relatives, friends, and local farmers to understand, and no one praised, let alone repercussions.
In the eyes of everyone, the romance of "eating fresh and clean breeze and drinking the beautiful peach-colored sunrise" is actually another way of saying that the meal wind and drink dew are cruel. Kenji Miyazawa is an escapist, escaping from the present and longing for innocence. This trait made him seem out of place in the era in which he lived.
But in a society where turmoil gradually subsides and individual pressure increases dramatically, Kenji Miyazawa is a needed person, and people need his simple spiritual guidance, and need his poetry and fairy tales to resolve the pain caused by the pressure of survival.
The film looks back with a hint of pity on the epitome of Kenji Miyazawa's half-life— fairy tale poets, teachers, agricultural reformers, etc., but doesn't describe much about his Buddhist beliefs. Like many people who are frustrated in reality and use faith to explain their outlook on life, Kenji Miyazawa has placed happiness and eternity in another world.
Relying on the refreshing animation audiovisual language given by director Masaharu Kawamori, "The Spring of Kenji Miyazawa" appropriately expresses Kenji Miyazawa's philosophical thought and spiritual world.
He spent his whole life pursuing dreams and truths, living his life in his own ideals, burning himself to create literature, and helping others with actions. He was not understood and known by the world until the end of his life, and he did not give up his yearning for a pure heart and the pursuit of eternal life. This person, who is rooted in the earth, has turned his thoughts and emotions into words, truly achieving instant and eternity.
The film's various forms, such as gouache, crayons, pencil sketches, and other wonderful imagery, are impressive, and vividly restore the poetic world of various fantasies written by Kenji Miyazawa. The large halo that often appears behind Kenji, the use of lotus flower patterns, and the folk music featuring the sandami strings, taiga drums and Ryukyu sound ranges all set off a strong artistic color.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > three, the eternal exploration of the human mission</h1>
The most interesting thing in the anime is the imitation of people into cats, which is not the subjective setting of Masaharu Kawamori, who is known as the "father of the transformation mech" in the animation world for his proficiency in fighter jet transformation, but because the cat is one of the animals that often appear in Kenji Miyazawa's fairy tale works.
Animal anthropomorphism is Kenji's commonly used fairy tale writing method, especially the replacement of people with cats, which can satirize social phenomena and express the free imagination of fairy tale worlds. Therefore, the portrayal of "Kenji Cat" in "Kenji Spring" gives Kenji Miyazawa another vivid and kind image, such as some actions of the cat and the meow after the words, which is also a rare shining point in a movie about celebrities.
To be fair, the sophistication of this anime does not dare to compliment, considering that its director is the material for "Transformers", the art supervisor is Hiroji Ono, which Miyazaki used in "Witch House Rush", and the painting supervision is Takahiro Kishida, who is loved by Oshii Mori in many films such as "Mobile Police".
But often the more unruly things are filmed, the more they have a kind of whimsical charm, especially the train that breaks through the earth to the Milky Way at the end of the film, making many Galactic Railway fans in the world cry for it, who will mind that the cartoon is not exquisite, the human design is not beautiful, and the train picture is unreal?
If the picture is just to tell a story, there is no meaning of the existence of images, abandoning the object pursued by appearance, peeling off the anatomical shackles of the character animation image, but there is another philosophical beauty, which is why "Sage Spring" is very attractive.
Such a person who is influenced by philosophical thinking and Buddhist thought has spent his whole life practicing and saving the world, and has truly achieved "the worries of the world before the world, and the happiness of the world after the world." Kenji has transcended his own limitations, understood the mission of man and the meaning of all things from the perspective of the world, and spent his life trying to glimpse the truth of the universe.
(1) Man's first understanding of the world is his curiosity and exploration of the outside world.
Everywhere you can see the calendula, dancing in the wind, enjoying the sun bathing; the human body can feel the warmth because of the carnival of tens of billions of molecules in the body; each stone is different, has its own voice, knocking on them, you can hear their whispers with the earth.
In the eyes of others, Kenji makes people wonder and wonder how flowers and stones can have joy and sorrow; in Kenji's eyes, everything in nature has life, mysterious and beautiful. "Son non-fish, the joy of knowing the fish?" The son is not me, and I know that I do not know the joy of fish? "Only those who love nature can see beauty.
(2) Man's second understanding of the world is the observation and examination of the self.
Most people are unaware of the existence of the self, everything is acted on the basis of feelings, and do not like to trace back to the source. A few people will think about themselves with an objective eye, and observe, analyze, and judge this unique "self" that is different from others.
His father unceremoniously pointed out to Kenji that no one could buy or understand his books. In the face of doubts, Kenji firmly stated his position and did not write for the sake of selling books to make money. He is concerned with whether he has passed on the right values to others and whether he has brought more beauty to the world.
(3) Man's third perception of the world is to think about his connection with the world.
Kenji observes the flowers, and the flowers are also looking at Kenji; Kenji observes insects, and insects are also looking at Kenji; Kenji listens to the stone, and the stone listens to Kenji's heart.
In observing and listening to each other, consciousness seeps in, so that you have me, I have you, and you cannot tell whether "it is I or the world that is trembling", or that I am not different from the world?
The galaxy that breaks free from gravity and is released in the film symbolizes Kenji's blueprint for a future dream of breaking the norm and daring to explore; the spiraling railway train that resounds through the sky is a tribute to great life and a call for a better world.
In the anime "Kenji Spring", Kenji's hobbies, personality, experiences, and thoughts show a different transcendent divinity everywhere. The word "great" is well deserved by Kenji Miyazawa. He has both a love for nature and a great love for mankind, discovering beauty, creating beauty, transmitting beauty all the time, and constantly sublimating himself in the speculation of "me", "others" and "the world".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks:</h1>
The philosophical aesthetics of "The Spring of Kenji" and Kenji Miyazawa's unsimpressive but distant life value are very well matched, I am afraid that even Kenji Miyazawa himself can not imagine that a nameless person like him who walks alone in the countryside and looks up at the stars, after life is extinguished, illuminates the dark prospects of all sentient beings, especially in an era when "soul" and "dream" are needed to support life at all times.