Peach Orchid

For the Shinto blog assignment I watched the film The Peach Orchard. In this film a young boy is taking a tray to his sister, it appears tat they are having some sort of a Japanese tea ceremony in honor of the dolls in the room (later it is stated that it is Doll Day). He brings the tea and notes that there are only 5 girls in the room, and there were 6 when he left. He notices that the other girl is walking down the hall way. The boy follows the girl to an old peach orchard that has been cut down. There he meets the dolls tat state that they are the spirit of the peach trees but his family has cut them down so they will now longer visit. The boy cries and states that you can always buy peaches but you can not buy the beauty of the orchard in bloom. The dolls perform a ritual dance to allow the boy to see he orchard in bloom ones more, when the trees appear the boy marvels at them and then he sees the girl again. After following her the trees disappear, then the boy notices that the spot where the girl stood is a new peach tree that is growing and blooming. Who doe this story relate to Shinto? Most forms of Shinto practice different rituals so the rituals in the story relate to Shinto rituals. Shintos hold a lot of faith in Kami (gods) and the spirits of the dolls revealing themselves to the boy is a major aspect of this story. The greatest sins in the Shinto tradition is to destroy a shrine, and based upon what the dolls said to the boys, the peaches were a somewhat shrine to the dolls, they were sacred. The boy cried when he realized that they were destroyed with the knowledge of sin. It was also important for the boy to not cry because of selfishness and to be crying because of the beauty