Lady Eboshi Did Nothing Wrong
I've seen the handful of other posts over the years about Eboshi and all the other Ghibli characters being neither good or evil. I mean, that's what makes a good character, right? You don't want the hero to be good to a fault or else they come off as saccharine and unrealistic.
Most commercial writing formulas talk about characters having faults or quirks that grounds them to the reader as being surface level relatable. Oh this school-aged superhero is an ultra powerful undefeatable force of good, but he is scared to talk to girls - you now have the pre-teen boy market in your pocket.
So this morning my husband sends me an instagram reel about the guys in the orange clothes that accompany Lady Eboshi around. They were modeled after Inujinin or Jinin who were slaves that did basic tasks for shrines and temples. Their job historically included handling the dead, ritual spirit cleansing, and important in this case - acting as guards for the shrine/temple. To be guards they had to also make their weapons and use them, etc.
In Mononoke the town consists of not just the ironworks but also a leper colony. Inujinin who were tending to and handling the dead from this plague knew how to make weapons, but not all of them managed to get infected. Apparently there is a very high natural immunity to the bacteria but if you get it you're toast in an era with no antibiotics. Anyway, we have a small village by a lake made up of discarded Jinin and other people who have been tossed out by society in premodern Japan.
Enter Lady Eboshi. We aren't told her background specifically. Those who have a decent knowledge of pre-modern Japanese folklore will have a grasp of who she is designed after. We can venture to guess that she was probably married and something bad happened but with her status and wealth she was able to just go do whatever she wanted afterwards. And thats close.
According to Keno Seiji, who worked on the film: "Eboshi is a daughter of the Shimazu Clan who was forced to marry a feudal lord. But she resisted her husband so she was sold as a sex slave until she was taken by the head of a Japanese pirate group whom she eventually kills." There is also a booklet for the film that claims she was previously a Shirabyōshi who was kidnapped by pirates and later married their leader. She and Gonza lead a pirate rebellion killing her husband and taking over. Hence, the wealth.
That second bit makes more sense given if she was a pirate in the 1500's she would have come in contact with the Portuguese ships who would have had matchlock weapons. Historically Japan was introduced to these after a Portuguese shipwreck but the film is set around this time so she could have come in contact with the weapons either at sea or from battles with the area samurai.
Excuse me, I need the prequel now.
So at some point Eboshi ends up in this village that is of no interest to the surrounding nobles or anything. She and the remainder of her pirate crew find out there is iron nearby and realize they can make a proper living this way. She sells the iron and gets enough money to tend to her little village of misfit toys. The leper colony is being medically treated. The Inujinin are no longer servants burying the dead in temples but now craftsmen and warriors - remember they were taught how to make weapons before this. The women working the furnace no longer have to sell themselves to eat. Eboshi has given social outcasts real jobs to be proud of, real food to eat, and a leader that sees them as human beings.
This becomes a bit of an environmental problem as she has her men clearing the nearby forest for ore. Eboshi has a 30–50(thousand) feral hog problem. In the beginning of the film you only see a handful but during the final battle with them they cover the mountainside. This many boars in one spot is doing more damage to the forest than an iron mine. On top of that these aren't normal hogs they are massive creatures who have been given power by a forest spirit. Her guns aren't enough and she needs to keep the ironworks going to keep her village running.
Luckily for her some crazy monk and his mercenary crew are out to kill the forest spirit and collect a bounty from the Emperor. Eboshi doesn't hold the Emperor in high esteem but this is a mutual benefit to her village so she works with them to attempt this. She doesn't want the head she wants to get rid of the giant talking magic boars. Her village and the ironworks hold value and the second she leaves the walls, local samurai attack it, but because she trained everyone in the village how to use the weapons they are able to defend themselves. Eboshi is literally out there fighting forest gods in order to take care of the people in her village.
So when Ashitaka rolls up one day with his wacky inflatable tube demon arm problem, Eboshi is all "Aw man that sucks, sorry about that but I have a village of people worse off than you to take care of." Eboshi is not going to give up her iron business to appease the monsters in the woods. In fact, from what we see of the wolves, boars, and apes in the forest, they wouldn't think twice about destroying all the humans.
At the end of the film Eboshi says she is going to rebuild the town and do things better but her whole operation requires the use of local resources. It's not possible to run an ironworks without cutting trees and digging up ore. She won't be able to keep peace with the forest for long.
Actually, she is doing something wrong. She is selling iron to the very samurai class that keeps trying to attack her village. One day the samurai are going to show up with guns too. I can only hope that after the story is over she makes a deal with the remaining boars to help her mining operation and defend her town from the samurai. Boars that big can dig ore faster than pickaxes. Strap some giant cannons to them and now she has magical beast tanks. Protect the forest and the village at the same time. I believe in her, she can make this work.
the pirate lady can come back if she wants