Understand Chihiro's path to the boiler room, the role of Kamaji the boiler man and the soot sprites, and the theme of work and kindness.
Down to the basement, to the fire
Kamaji — the spider-like old man by the boiler
To get to Yubaba and ask for a job, Chihiro has to go down to the very bottom of the bathhouse — to the boiler room. She inches down a rickety stairway along the wall, clinging on (a terrifying descent that tests her resolve), and reaches the stifling heat below.
The boiler room is run by Kamaji: an old man with six long, spider-like arms. They reach for the shelves of herbs and stoke the boilers around the clock, heating water for the baths. Kamaji is grumpy but fair. He is helped by the susuwatari, “soot sprites”: little black balls of soot with eyes (the same creatures as in “Totoro”). They haul coal and live on little star-shaped candies.
When Chihiro, out of kindness, picks up a lump of coal for an exhausted soot sprite, Kamaji grumbles: “If you start a job, finish it.” This is the first lesson of the spirit world: here, work is respected. At first Kamaji says there's no job for her, but seeing her persistence, he helps: he sends her upstairs to Yubaba with the worker Lin.
Lesson notes
Kamaji — the spider-like old man by the boiler
To get to Yubaba and ask for a job, Chihiro has to go down to the very bottom of the bathhouse — to the boiler room. She inches down a rickety stairway along the wall, clinging on (a terrifying descent that tests her resolve), and reaches the stifling heat below.
The boiler room is run by Kamaji: an old man with six long, spider-like arms. They reach for the shelves of herbs and stoke the boilers around the clock, heating water for the baths. Kamaji is grumpy but fair. He is helped by the susuwatari, “soot sprites”: little black balls of soot with eyes (the same creatures as in “Totoro”). They haul coal and live on little star-shaped candies.
When Chihiro, out of kindness, picks up a lump of coal for an exhausted soot sprite, Kamaji grumbles: “If you start a job, finish it.” This is the first lesson of the spirit world: here, work is respected. At first Kamaji says there's no job for her, but seeing her persistence, he helps: he sends her upstairs to Yubaba with the worker Lin.