La memoria del corazón: El viaje de Chihiro desde una lectura etnográfica japonesa y amazónica

This article proposes an interpretation of Spirited Away (dir. Hayao Miyazaki) based on certain parallels between traditional Japanese culture and Amazonian culture. Drawing on Japanese animist thought (animizumu) and the cosmological reflections of the indigenous nations of the western Amazon, especially the Shipibo-Konibo people, the links between spirituality, ecology, affection, and greed in the film's narrative are explored. Through the analysis of concepts such as kamikakushi, greed as a spiritual disease, the medicinal power of plants, and the performativity of language, a dialogue is established between ancestral Japanese narratives (especially Yanagita's The Legends of Tōno) and Amazonian indigenous epistemologies. It is argued that the film functions as a symbolic watershed that reactivates an “indigeneity of being” and articulates a cordial ethic of care and reciprocity with the beings of the territory, both human and non-human. Finally, it is proposed that animation can be understood as a tool for transmitting atavistic knowledge, capable of contributing to a critical cosmopoetics in the face of the dehumanizing effects of hegemonic modernity. This reading points to an ecological ethic that transcends cultural boundaries and affirms a relational vision of the world based on affection and memory.