The myth of the Sun Goddess who founded Japanese society is seen through the lens of a modern view of history.
Cinematography
Tatsuo Suzuki shoots like he's exhuming memories from soil.
Costume
Tatsumi Hijikata's butoh-inspired designs move like ancestral trauma.
Direction
Shinoda treats history as archaeology in real-time—digging hurts.
Director
Masahiro Shinoda
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Himiko was a real 3rd-century shaman-queen of Yamataikoku, mentioned in Chinese chronicles but absent from Japanese records—Shinoda exploits this archival silence as political critique.
Tatsumi Hijikata, who designed the film's grotesque-ritual aesthetic, was founder of butoh dance; his cameo as the shaman-dancer was his only significant film appearance before his death in 1986.
JP
