Strapping his slide-ruler to the side of her leg, Jiro leads both Naoko and her maid to safety. As Jiro starts to leave, he notices that Naoko's maid had broken her leg during the commotion caused by the earthquake. The passengers inside the train flee from the train, as the damaged boiler threatens to explode. An unprecedented, deadly earthquake suddenly hits the Kanto region, leaving the city in devastation and fire. During the journey, he meets Naoko, a young girl traveling with her maid, for the first time. Boarding a train, he makes his way to the Kanto region of Japan. By the time he is an adult, he is able to enter the University of Tokyo to study aeronautics. Caproni encourages Jiro to become an areonautical engineer, as he could then follow his desire to design airplanes without actually having to fly one.ĭetermined to become an aeronautical engineer one day, Jiro studies the principles of aviation throughout his academic years, continuously seeking guidance and encouragement from Caproni along the way. Desperate to find a way to overcome his weakness and follow his goal, he seeks help and guidance from Giovanni Caproni, a famous Italian aircraft designer who appears to Jiro in his dreams. His hopeless longing even leads to dreams where he would fall from an airplane he was piloting, as his eyes could not withstand the pressure of high altitudes. However, much to his dismay, his eye-sight deteriorates rapidly, preventing Jiro from ever piloting an aircraft. In the movie, Jiro starts out as a young boy living in a provincial town in Japan, who dreams of a day when he could design and possibly fly airplanes.

The Wind Rises is a movie based on a real historical figure in Japanese history, Jiro Horikoshi, who was responsible for creating the infamous 'Zero' fighter during the first years of World War 2.

風立ちぬ [Kaze tachinu] by Tatsuo Hori