Studying Yoga Sūtras through Naruto

Abstract

Japanese anime in the modern times communicate cross-cultural information exchange of interreligious discourses (Minea 91-103). This propagates mutual appreciation and respect across heterogeneous religious practices emphasizing the need to analyze and rationalize anime content through the prism of our own cultures. According to Feigenblatt and Federico, anime not only reflects Japanese identity and culture, but also incorporates themes of hybridity and globalisation. This broadens anime’s horizons from being a simple local entertainment medium to popular culture propagators worldwide, whereby, content analysis of anime becomes an important aspect of cultural studies. This research paper is tasked to link ancient Indian spiritual philosophy (Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali) to Japanese animation (Masashi Kishimoto's Naruto), thereby, analysing and identifying characters, plot, and motifs in Naruto that are relevant throughout the series. The following concepts in Yoga such as “yama, niyama, āsana prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, dhyāna, and samādhayaḥ” are used to analyze Kishimoto’s Narutoverse. Content as well as context analysis of the series provides the connections to how the Narutoverse incorporates the “Astanga” Yoga approach, enriching its narrative as well as repackaging classical cultural information as part of a new pop culture narrative. This reveals the universality of such Yogic principles as well as portrays the shared ideas of the spiritual wisdom of the Asian countries. Finally, this paper acknowledges that Indian Yoga Sūtras and Japanese anime intersect through universal themes and concepts as portrayed in the Narutoverse transcending aesthetic boundaries of culture and time and enriching pop cultural narratives.