In Japanese version, Yubaba referred River Spirit as 'a lord of a famous river' (名のある川の主, nano aru kawa no nushi).

The River Spirit is a character that alludes strongly to Spirited Away's theme of human corruption on their surrounding environments, as seen when Chihiro pulls a truckload of man-made waste and debris from his body.

Human-faced dragon is commonly featured in various mythologies and folklores around the world.

He is not seen again in the film after this.

After pulling a bicycle (among countless other man-made artifacts) from his body, the River Spirit shows gratitude by giving Chihiro a famous, emetic herbs medicine and leaves the bathhouse happily in his original form, leaving a generous amount of gold as tips for the workers. In hopes to save himself from the pain of being grounded by human waste, the River Spirit visits the Bathhouse where Chihiro helps him take a bath. Due to humans consistently dumping their trash and filth into his river, the River Spirit was transformed into a filthy, muddy creature called a Stink Spirit that leaves a trail of sludge wherever he walks. The River Spirit is assumed to be the spirit of a very large and powerful river in the Human World. He is also generous, leaving a great amount of gold pieces on the ground as a tip to the Bathhouse workers for their service to him. He is shown to be very energetic once freed of his polluted burden and displays a hefty amount of gratitude to Chihiro, who freed him, by giving her a famous type of medicine as thanks. It is known that he is a very rich and powerful spirit with much influence in the Spirit Realm. Not much of the River Spirit's personality is made apparent in the film. After being relieved of all the human-made trash that had clogged up his body, the unnamed River Spirit was freed from all the gunk he was carrying and revealed himself to be a grand spirit. However, Yubaba notes that he didn't seem like a stink spirit and ordered Chihiro Ogino to wash him in the Big Tub.

In his first introduction in the film, the River Spirit is shown to be a disgusting, grimy, muck-infested spirit mistaken to be a 'stink spirit' by many. By his appearance, he is an extremely old river god, evident by the countless wrinkles on his face, white-colored eyebrows and the thinning amounts of facial hair and lack of teeth, the River Spirit is revealed to have a water-based, dragon-like body in his original form with multiple, wiry, avian legs.

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