The Forest of the Deer God

A background painting measuring 23.2 × 157.0 cm, executed in poster color for a shot that lasts twenty seconds on screen. Nizō Yamamoto worked on it for two weeks.

Scene 316 shows the Forest of the Deer God in Princess Mononoke. The panorama was designed for a slow camera pan that reveals the extent of the Forest Spirit's realm. The sequence runs without music and without dialogue, carried only by the sounds of the forest.

The shot begins in frontal light and turns into backlight as the camera moves toward a gap in the canopy. Yamamoto keeps the water surface dark so that it mirrors the moss covered trunks, and applies rim lighting to the foliage. The colors range from emerald shadows to pale lime tones. Decaying logs lie beside fresh seedlings, the cycle of the forest in a single view.

Of the work itself Yamamoto later said that the concentration it demanded reminded him of a computer that had frozen. Of the Forest of the Deer God as a whole he said: "From the entrance to the Forest of the Deer God onwards, I drew with such detail that my head hurt; when I die, I want to take this drawing with me into my coffin."

Miyazaki divided the settings of Princess Mononoke among five art directors, according to their origins and their strengths. Yamamoto was given the spiritual center of the film. The imagery rests on a research trip to Yakushima, where he photographed the forest floor in order to stay botanically precise. The film opened in Japanese cinemas on 12 July 1997 and is the last Studio Ghibli production completed largely by analog means.

Our Solegraph edition: edition of 100, sheet size 40 × 170 cm, Radiant White 270 g/m².
Printed at Yamada Photo Process beside the original, with the color adjusted against it until the closest possible match is reached.