In Studio Ghibli’s The Wind Rises, Jirō Horikoshi visits Germany to study aircraft design.
The film portrays Jirō’s 1920s journey to Germany, where he learns from developments in European aviation before returning to Japan. His professional ambition is to design aircraft, and the story later connects him with the Mitsubishi A5M fighter and the Zero fighter.
Hayao Miyazaki wrote and directed the 2013 film. It blends historical biography with fictional and dreamlike episodes, including meetings with Italian aircraft designer Giovanni Battista Caproni in Jirō’s imagination.
Germany is distinct from Italy in the film’s aviation history: Caproni is Italian, but Jirō’s study trip is to Germany. The movie is inspired by the life of real engineer Jirō Horikoshi and also draws on Tatsuo Hori’s 1937 novel The Wind Has Risen.