Q 01/05

In the title Princess Mononoke, what does the Japanese word "mononoke" mean?

A) A spirit or monster

B) A forest shrine

C) A mountain pass

D) A lost child

Answer · why

A) A spirit or monster

A spirit or monster. It is a description, not a name: the townspeople use it for San because she runs with the animal gods of the forest and fights li...

Q 02/05

In which period of Japanese history is Princess Mononoke set?

A) Kamakura

B) Heian

C) Muromachi

D) Azuchi–Momoyama

Answer · why

C) Muromachi

Muromachi. Miyazaki chose the era because charcoal-hungry furnaces were then stripping the forests, the moment when people began to feel they could ma...

Q 03/05

Ashitaka, the young prince who rides west to cure his cursed arm, belongs to which people?

A) Ryukyuan

B) Emishi

C) Kumaso

D) Yamato

Answer · why

B) Emishi

Emishi. Their real defeat by the Japanese court lay some five centuries in the past; Miyazaki imagined one last clan surviving in a hidden village.

Q 04/05

San, the girl the townspeople call Princess Mononoke, was raised by which animals?

A) Foxes

B) Bears

C) Boars

D) Wolves

Answer · why

D) Wolves

Wolves. Her parents threw her at a wolf god's feet as they fled the forest, and instead of eating the baby the god raised her as a daughter.

Q 05/05

Who produced Princess Mononoke and led its marketing campaign?

A) Toru Hara

B) Isao Takahata

C) Yoshifumi Kondō

D) Toshio Suzuki

Answer · why

D) Toshio Suzuki

Toshio Suzuki. When the American distributor pressed for a shorter film, it was Suzuki who handed its boss a samurai sword with the message "No cuts".