How centuries of Japanese folklore inspired ‘The Boy and the Heron’

BySelena Takigawa Hoy

Published December 15, 2023

• 5 min read

In Studio Ghibli’s new film The Boy and the Heron, a mysterious talking heron leads young protagonist Mahito on a fantastic quest to save his mother. The latest film from the Oscar-winning studio takes inspiration from the 1937 book How Do you Live? and centuries of heron mythology. In fact, the heron has been winging its way into the literature, art, and folklore mythology of Japan for more than a millennium.

Herons, or sagi in Japanese, are commonly spotted standing serenely in rivers, marshes, and rice paddies on long slim legs with a curving neck and long pointed beak. If you’re lucky enough to be there when one takes flight, it’s a glimpse of unexpected majesty. Unlike its cousin the crane, which symbolizes peace, luck, and longevity, the meaning in the heron’s appearance is more mysterious, tied to spirits, gods, death, and a link to another world.

The first known reference to a heron in Japanese literature might be in the Kojiki, says Mariko Nagai, professor of Japanese literature at Temple University Japan. The Kojiki is Japan’s oldest literary work, compiled in 712, and contains a number of creation myths that form the backbone of the Indigenous Shinto religion and the country’s folklore.

In one story, when a prince dies far from home, his soul turns into a white bird. Though it’s not explicitly named as a heron, Nagai says, the scholarship indicates it’s likely. “The white heron takes on this otherworldliness in Japanese mythology and folklore.” Nagai adds that herons often appear around death, and that birds in general are associated with death and funerals, even joining processions or taking on other funeral rites.

White herons, noted for their striking appearance, are often depicted in stories and ukiyo-e (woodblock) prints, acting as messengers of the gods or symbolizing purity and transition. When other herons, like the aosagi (blue heron) or goisagi (night heron) appear, their presence may be more foreboding. In fact, an ornithologist wrote an entire book exploring why Japanese people find gray herons (like the one in The Boy and the Heron) creepy or melancholy in comparison to their more positive image abroad.

A yokai (monster) called Aosagibi dating from at least the 1700s depicts an aosagi or goisagi that perches in a tree, glowing with an eerie blue fire. Sightings of the glowing bird speculate that it might be a ghost or a shapeshifter. “The aosagi blends in and has more of a connotation of darkness,” says Nagai. In flight, they blend into the night and disappear, reappearing when it’s light. “It may be a symbolic suggestion about the cycle of life, about how when people die, they go back to the great beyond.”

The theme of otherworldliness continues in the Noh play titled “Sagi,” based on a story from The Tale of Heike, written in the 1300s. In it, the Emperor Daigo spots a heron and orders it caught, then delights as it dances for the court and frees it to fly away. The actors in the play wear white costumes to symbolize the bird’s purity, says Diego Pellecchia, a Noh scholar and associate professor at the Faculty of Cultural Studies at Kyoto Sangyo University.

Though masks are normally required in Noh when actors are representing supernatural characters, in this rarely performed play, “the role of the heron is performed either by youths or by elderly actors,” says Pellecchia. He explains that youths and the elderly are thought to be closer to the other world and more able to access and channel the spiritual realm, as “that can be achieved only at these liminal stages of life.”

Nagai speculates that herons appear so much in folklore because they’re familiar characters to farmers, often spotted in the fields. A ritual dance called Shirasagi no Mai (White Heron Dance) has been performed regularly at Sensoji temple in Tokyo since 1652, but has originates even farther in the past, to about the 11th century. In the performance, dancers dressed as herons slowly twirl, dip, and high step, accompanied by solemn flute and drum music. Originally performed at Kyoto’s Yasaka Shrine, the dance is meant to ward off plagues.

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