Master of the Garden

The Master of the Garden is a character in the Science Fiction manga Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, created by Hayao Miyazaki. He is mysterious, ambiguous and rather scary. It is not clear at first whether he is good or evil, kind and considerate or coldly calculating, male or female, human, supernatural, or an artificial life-form. He presides over a hidden secret garden, a strange place that Nausicaa accidentally finds as she is traveling to the holy city of Shuwa on a mission to either save or destroy the world. The princess, made ill by her proximity to Ohma, is rescued by the Master, who provides her with a medicinal bath, new clothes, and good food. His intention is to persuade Nausicaa to stay in the garden for the rest of her life. He is assisted by several humans who have been thus trapped, by intelligent animals such as Kest, and by worker Heedra.

Species of plants and animals thought to be extinct, and works of literature and music thought to be lost, are safely in the Garden until the day when they can be returned to a purified world.