In Tokyo, I went to see Toshio Suzuki, the yin to Miyazaki’s yang, the most important person in the company’s history aside from Miyazaki and Takahata. Although he has held many titles (producer, president), most crucially Suzuki has functioned as a kind of Miyazaki whisperer: a combination of friend, critic, right-hand man, creative consultant, collaborator and business partner. When Miyazaki strains a major deadline, or decides out of nowhere to retire, or when he can’t decide how to end a film — Suzuki is the one who figures out how to make it all OK, to stretch budgets and schedules, to hire or lay off whole teams of people.

在东京，我 去见了铃木敏夫，他与宫崎骏的性格完全相反；他是公司历史上除了宫崎骏和高畑勋之外最重要的人物。尽管他拥有许多头衔（制片人、总裁），但最重要的是铃木充当了宫崎骏的代言人：他是朋友、评论家、得力助手、创意顾问、合作者和商业伙伴的结合体。当宫崎骏在一个重要的截止日期前紧张时，或者突然决定退休，或者当他无法决定如何结束一部电影时——铃木是想出如何让一切顺利的人，来延长预算和日程，聘请或解雇整个团队。

I met Suzuki at his office, the doorway of which features a Totoro welcome mat. We sat together at a long table, speaking through an interpreter.

我在他的办公室见到了铃木，办公室门口有一张龙猫迎宾垫。我们坐在一张长桌旁，通过翻译交谈。

While Miyazaki is famously grouchy, Suzuki is open and affable. He has a deep, hearty, easy laugh. He loves to talk — so much so that he hosts his own weekly radio show.

宫崎骏以脾气暴躁着称，而铃木则是开放和和蔼可亲的。他的笑声深沉、爽朗、轻松。他喜欢说话，以至于他主持了自己的每周广播节目。

Suzuki told me that the story of Ghibli Park began, almost by accident, 20 years ago — with a quirky one-off project. It was Suzuki’s idea. For years, he had been fantasizing about building a real-world simulacrum of the cartoon house from “My Neighbor Totoro.” This was partly nostalgia: Suzuki actually grew up, in Nagoya, in a house like that — an old-style Japanese country house, with traditional woodworking. Finally, the real world gave him a perfect excuse. He learned that in 2005 a big World Expo would be held in this municipal park on the edge of Nagoya. Its organizers were inviting companies from around the world, including Ghibli, to create pavilions. And so Suzuki said: Yes. We will build this house.

铃木告诉我，吉卜力公园的故事始于 20 年前，几乎是偶然的——一个古怪的一次性项目。这是铃木的主意。多年来，他一直幻想着为《龙猫》中的卡通房子建造一个真实世界的模拟物。这在一定程度上是出于怀旧：铃木实际上是在名古屋的一所房子里长大的——一座老式的日式乡间别墅，采用传统的木工工艺。终于，现实世界给了他一个完美的借口。他了解到，2005 年将在名古屋边缘的这个市政公园举办大型世博会。它的组织者正在邀请包括吉卜力在内的世界各地的公司来创建展馆。所以铃木说：是的。我们将建造这所房子。

The expo organizers loved the idea. Maybe you could put a Totoro in the house, they said. Or some of those cute little soot sprites.

世博会组织者喜欢这个想法。他们说，或许你可以在家里放一只龙猫。或者一些可爱的小烟灰精灵。

No! Suzuki said. (In our interview, he actually yelled this right out loud, in English: “No!”) He was only interested in building the house. No characters. Nothing fantastical. Just the house! To this day, Suzuki is not sure why he was so adamant about that. He insists it was not some great principled stand. He just felt like saying no. When it came time to name the place, he didn’t name it after Totoro — he named it after the film’s two human children. “Satsuki and Mei’s House.”

不！铃木说。 （在我们的采访中，他实际上用英语大声喊道：“不！”）他只对盖房子感兴趣。没有动画人物和动物。没有惊人什么的。只是房子！直到今天，铃木仍不确定他为何如此坚持这一点。他坚称这不是什么伟大的原则立场。他只是想说不。到了为这个地方命名的时候，他并没有以龙猫的名字命名——而是以电影中两个人类孩子的名字命名。 “小月和芽衣的家。”

To build the house, Suzuki enlisted Goro. Goro may not have had his father’s animation genius — no one really did — but he had other things. A similar obsession with detail. An iron will. Goro knew construction. He had a good practical head on his shoulders. He had built the Ghibli Museum. He would be able to solve any logistical problems. And he had people skills that his father lacked.

为了盖房子，铃木找来了五郎。 Goro可能没有他父亲的动画天才——没有人真的拥有他父亲的动画天才——但他有其他的东西。对细节的类似痴迷。钢铁般的意志。五郎懂建筑。他的肩膀上有一个很好的实用头脑。他建造了吉卜力博物馆。他将能够解决任何后勤问题。他拥有他父亲所缺乏的人际交往能力。

“The one thing that’s very different from Goro to his father, what sets them apart, is how they use staff members,” Suzuki told me. “Hayao Miyazaki is maybe not a great leader. But Goro is very good at making the team function. He’s very good at bringing the best out of each team member.”

Goro和他父亲的不同之处在于他们使用员工的方式，”Suzuki 告诉我。 “宫崎骏可能不是一个伟大的领导者。但是Goro非常擅长让团队发挥作用。他非常善于激发每个团队成员的最佳潜能。”

The whole Totoro house project was a lark. Would the public even be interested in visiting an elaborate wooden replica of a house from a cartoon? Suzuki had no idea. But popularity wasn’t really the point. The impulse was deeper than that.

整个龙猫之家项目是为了好玩。公众是否有兴趣参观精心制作的卡通房屋木制复制品？铃木不知道。但人气并不是真正的重点。这种冲动比那更深。

Well, it turned out that the public was interested. In 2005, when the World Expo opened, Satsuki and Mei’s House was an instant sensation. Such huge floods of Miyazaki fans poured in that everyone worried the house would be ruined. Its artisanal woodworking was not designed for so much traffic. They imposed a limit: 800 visitors a day. But the competition for those 800 spots was so fierce that, eventually, the expo instituted a lottery system. On an average day, 600,000 people applied. Everyone in Japan seemed to want to put their physical bodies inside the world of Studio Ghibli.

好吧，事实证明公众对此很感兴趣。 2005年，世博会开幕，小月和梅家一炮走红。宫崎骏的粉丝如潮水般涌来，大家都担心房子要毁了。它的手工木工并不是为如此多的交通而设计的。他们规定了一个限制：每天 800 名访客。但是这 800 个名额的竞争非常激烈，最终世博会采用了抽签制度。平均每天有 60 万人申请。日本的每个人似乎都想把自己的身体放在吉卜力工作室的世界里。

Suzuki is still amazed by this. It was just a house! When the expo ended, he said, Ghibli received calls from all over Japan — from north to south, Hokkaido to Okinawa. Everyone wanted Satsuki and Mei’s House to be moved to their city. Suzuki even received a call from the city of Toyota, which was interested in moving the house inside the car company’s headquarters.

对此，铃木至今仍感诧异。那只是一所房子！他说，世博会结束后，吉卜力接到了来自日本各地的电话——从北到南，从北海道到冲绳。每个人都希望小月和梅的家搬到他们的城市。铃木甚至接到了丰田市的电话，有意将汽车公司总部内的房子搬走。

What on earth was this insatiable hunger? I asked Suzuki. Why would so many people go to so much trouble to stand inside an ordinary house?

这种永不满足的饥饿到底是什么？我问铃木。为什么这么多人会费心费力地站在一间普通的房子里？

It’s an excellent question, he said. In fact, that’s exactly what the head of Toyota asked him. Toyota hoped that, if they could figure out the source of this public frenzy, it might help them sell their next car. 

这是一个很好的问题，他说。事实上，这正是丰田的负责人问他的。丰田希望，如果他们能弄清楚这种公众狂热的根源，这可能有助于他们出售下一辆车。

But Suzuki had no good explanation. And in the end he told everyone that Satsuki and Mei’s House would stay in Nagoya. Many years later, this odd building would become the anchor, and the guiding spirit, of Ghibli Park.

但是铃木没有很好的解释。并且最后他告诉大家，小月和芽衣的家会留在名古屋。许多年后，这座奇怪的建筑将成为吉卜力公园的支柱和指导精神。

Goro started planning Ghibli Park in 2017. It was similar to Satsuki and Mei’s House — but much bigger, much more complicated. It would require all of his skills. His ability to lead teams of actual humans. His ability to haul his father’s imaginary structures, kicking and screaming, into reality.

2017 年，五郎开始筹划 吉卜力公园。它类似于小月和芽衣的家——但更大、更复杂。这需要他所有的技能。他领导真实人类团队的能力。他有能力将他父亲想象中的结构、踢打和尖叫变成现实。

Building that Totoro house, Goro told me, had been an incredible hassle. Architecturally, he discovered, the cartoon structure made very little sense. It was tricky to come up with a design that would be both recognizable to viewers of “My Neighbor Totoro” while also functioning as a real-world house. The traditional woodworking required a highly select group of artisans. They were proud, opinionated and stubborn. They argued with Goro over all kinds of things: the blueprints, the height of the ceilings. They didn’t want to build a temporary structure, so Goro had to promise to protect it even after the expo ended. Studio Ghibli had planned to paint the house when it was finished, to make it look plausibly old. But the artisans hated that idea and insisted on aging it in their own way: burning and rubbing the wood, lacquering it with persimmon juice. To make everything worse, the expo’s roads were blocked by construction, so carpenters had to drag supplies over a hill. Everything took longer than it was supposed to. When the expo auditors saw the expenses, they thought there had to be some mistake. It’s not possible to spend so much money on a single house! they said. We could have built a beautiful modern house for a fraction of this cost.

Goro告诉我，建造龙猫的房子是一件非常麻烦的事情。他发现，在建筑上，卡通结构毫无意义。想出一个既能被“龙猫”的观众认出又能作为现实世界的房子使用的设计是很棘手的。传统的木工工艺需要经过精心挑选的工匠群体。他们骄傲、非常有主见、固执。他们和Goro就各种各样的事情争论不休：蓝图、天花板的高度。他们不想建造一个临时建筑，所以Goro不得不承诺即使在世博会结束后也会保护它。吉卜力工作室原计划在房子完工后对其进行粉刷，让它看起来似是而非地古老。但工匠们讨厌这个想法，并坚持以他们自己的方式陈化它：燃烧和摩擦木头，用柿子汁给它上漆。更糟糕的是，世博会的道路被施工堵塞，木匠们不得不拖着物资翻过一座小山。一切都花费了比预期更长的时间。当世博会审核员看到费用时，他们认为一定是有什么错误。一个房子不可能花那么多钱！他们说。我们本可以用这笔费用的一小部分建造一栋漂亮的现代住宅。

Nevertheless, Goro persisted. He overcame all the obstacles. He built the imaginary house. Unfortunately, however, that triumph did not last — because somehow, Goro agreed to step out of the real world and into the world of his father. He agreed to direct a Studio Ghibli film.

尽管如此，五郎还是坚持了下来。他克服了所有的障碍。他建造了想象中的房子。然而不幸的是，这种胜利并没有持续多久——因为不知何故，五郎同意走出现实世界，进入他父亲的世界。他同意执导吉卜力工作室的电影。

It did not go well. Goro’s film, “Tales From Earthsea,” lacked the energy that defined his father’s work: the throbbing physicality, the restless joy, the moral ambiguity. It was, to be blunt, stiff and humorless. The villain cackled. The hero was noble. At a screening, Miyazaki walked out after only an hour. “It felt like I’d been in there for three hours,” he said, despondently, before reluctantly heading back in. All of this was captured in the NHK documentary. Still, almost unbelievably, Goro went back for more. He proposed directing a second film. In the end, after some more father-son fireworks, this one, “From Up on Poppy Hill,” was — thank the Forest Spirit — much better than his first.

这次并不顺利。五郎的电影， “地海传说”， 缺乏定义他父亲工作的能量：悸动的身体、不安的喜悦、道德上的模棱两可。直言不讳，僵硬和缺乏幽默感。恶棍咯咯笑了起来。英雄是高贵的。在一场放映会上，宫崎骏在一个小时后就走了出去。 “感觉就像我在里面呆了三个小时，”他沮丧地说，然后才不情愿地回到放映会。所有这一切都被记录在 NHK 纪录片中。尽管如此，几乎令人难以置信的是， Goro不肯放弃。他提议执导第二部电影。最后，又是一场父子“争吵”，最终， “从罂粟山上，” ——感谢森林精灵——比他的第一部动画片好得多。

And then came this huge undertaking of Ghibli Park. A theme park, in a way, had higher stakes for Goro Miyazaki than any single film. This would be a public, physical, visitable, globally anticipated translation of his father’s imaginative worlds. And Goro would be absolutely in charge.

然后，五郎接手吉卜力公园的这项巨大工程。在某种程度上，主题公园对宫崎骏来说比任何一部电影都更重要。这将是他父亲想象世界的公开的、物理的、可访问的、全球预期的翻译。 Goro将绝对负责。

Eventually, after our very long walk through the forest, my guides and I arrived at Satsuki and Mei’s House. As an attraction, it is hilariously minimalist — almost more conceptual art about a theme-park attraction than a proper attraction in itself. It’s as if a giant hand reached into the film, plucked just this building out and set it down in a clearing in this forest. We stepped inside. The house was clean, small and crowded. Visitors had removed their shoes, as if they were visiting a real person’s home. And everyone was just doing house things: opening drawers, opening closets, turning faucets on and off. The place had been arranged, with perfect realism, as if a Japanese family actually lived there. Tatami mats covered the floor. Dishes filled the cupboards. I slid open a closet. Nice, actual blankets, folded neatly, sat on the shelves. The bathroom had a big round tub just like the one in the film. Outside, the yard featured a working water pump: pull the handle, watch it flow.

最终，在我们穿过森林走了很长一段路之后，我的向导和我到达了小月和梅的家。作为一个景点，它是滑稽的极简主义——几乎更多的是关于主题公园景点的概念艺术，而不是一个适当的景点本身。就好像一只巨手伸进了电影里，把这座建筑拔了出来，放在了这片森林的空地上。我们走进去。房子干净，小而拥挤。来访者都脱掉了鞋子，就好像在真人家里参观一样。每个人都只是在做家务：打开抽屉、打开壁橱、开关水龙头。这个地方被布置得非常逼真，就好像一个日本家庭真的住在那里一样。榻榻米垫子铺满了地板。碗碟摆满了橱柜。我滑开一个壁橱。漂亮的、真正的毯子，折叠整齐，放在架子上。浴室里有一个很大的圆形浴缸，就像电影中的那个一样。在外面，院子里有一个工作水泵：拉动手柄，看着它流出。

There was not a single image of Totoro — the most beloved of all the Studio Ghibli characters, the company’s equivalent of Mickey Mouse. Nor could I find any soot sprites. I stepped outside. On one side of the house, down at the ground, people were lining up to peek into a dark hole. In the film, this is the portal through which Totoro emerges. I got in line. Surely there would be a Totoro here. A pair of eyes at least. Finally! I thought. Ghibli Park had made me work for it, but I had found a Totoro. I waited my turn. I bent down. The hole was empty.

没有一张龙猫的画——吉卜力工作室所有角色中最受欢迎的，相当于该公司的米老鼠。我也找不到任何烟灰精灵。我走到外面。在房子的一侧，在地面上，人们正排着队向一个黑洞里窥视。在电影中，这是龙猫出现的门户。我排队了。这里肯定会有龙猫。至少有一双眼睛。最后！我想。吉卜力公园让我为此努力，但我找到了龙猫。我等着轮到我了。我弯下腰。洞是空的。

When I told Goro about this experience, he seemed pleased.

当我把这段经历告诉Goro时，他似乎很高兴。

“We wanted to do something authentic,” he said. “Once you try to bring Totoro into reality, you can only do it with a doll, or a robot, or someone dressed as Totoro. It would just lose authenticity. I felt that it was more important to have the building give the feeling that Totoro might be there. When you sit in that tatami room, or if you look under the stairs, you feel like he might be hiding.”

“我们想做一些真实的事情，”他说。 “一旦你想把龙猫带到现实中，你只能用洋娃娃、机器人或打扮成龙猫的人来做。它只会失去真实性。我觉得更重要的是让建筑给 感觉 龙猫可能在那里。当你坐在那个榻榻米房间里，或者如果你往楼梯下面看，你会觉得他可能躲起来了。”