Zen and Ghibli: Life Lessons for Lasting Happiness from the Legendary Studio

The secrets for how to live a happy, enlightened life from three charming Buddhist monks and Toshio Suzuki, the Oscar-winning Studio Ghibli producer behind internationally beloved and acclaimed films including Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, and The Boy and the Heron.

One visionary filmmaker. Three Buddhist monks. Countless life-changing lessons.

How do we live now? In Zen and Ghibli, legendary Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki embarks on an intellectual journey with three leading Buddhist monks—Sokyu Gen’yu, Nanrei Yokota, and Shinsuke Hosokawa—to explore Zen themes woven into the universally treasured Ghibli films. In ways unpredictable and delightful, life-changing lessons are revealed, such as:

• zazen, redirecting our focus inward (Kiki’s Delivery Service)
• kunjū, learning through observation (The Wind Rises)
• fushiki, strength in not knowing (Princess Mononoke)
• furyū monji, how to convey feelings that cannot be expressed into words (Howl’s Moving Castle)

From the skill of embodying nothingness as a form of worry relief, to why Kiki’s black cat Jiji stopped talking, each conversation gradually reveals a basic principle that lies at the very heart of Zen Buddhism and Studio Ghibli—that we, and our world, are worth fighting for.

Beautifully illustrated with Japanese artwork and stills from these iconic films, Zen and Ghibli is at once a charming antidote for our times and a fascinating glimpse into the magic of Studio Ghibli that has shaped fans for over forty years.

Toshio Suzuki is an award-winning Japanese film producer. He is the chief producer and co-founder of Studio Ghibli, alongside Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. He was president of the company from 2005-2008, and remains a chairman there.

Beth Cary is a translator of fiction and non-fiction and interpreter who has worked with Studio Ghibli filmmakers. She is co-translator (with Frederik L. Schodt) of Hayao Miyazaki’s Starting Point and Turning Point and translator of the two-volume set Hayao Miyazaki and the Ghibli Museum.