The digital brush paints a flourishing world: enacting religion and aesthetic traditions in Ōkami

ABSTRACT

The video game Ōkami encourages players to immerse themselves in a digital gamescape that incorporates Japanese aesthetics, stories, and religious philosophies. The designers have gamified Shintō holographic reasoning, Confucian virtues, and Buddhist metaphors of fighting demons of the mind to create a world modeled after a mythological retelling of medieval Japan. A significant portion of the player’s gameplay involves purifying pollutants from the environment, which improves the player character and the Japanesque world’s citizens. The game acts as a playable metaphor that teaches the player about Japanese religion and culture by allowing them to enact an interpretation of it interactively.

KEYWORDS:

• Video games
• Japan
• metaphor
• flourishing
• Shintō
• Buddhism

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

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Brandon J. Harwood

Brandon J. Harwood earned his doctorate in Comparative Humanities at the University of Louisville, USA, focusing on the intersection of religious experience, artistic expression, and technological innovations. His specialty area is modern Japanese culture (seventeenth century to the present); he is currently working on an analysis of religious practices and beliefs in Japanese video games. He is also a coordinator in the Commonwealth Center for the Humanities and Society and senior lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Louisville. CORRESPONDENCE: Department of Philosophy and Commonwealth Center for the Humanities and Society, University of Louisville, 408 Stevenson Hall, Louisville, KY 40292, USA.