The Akira Kurosawa dream sequence I watched was The Peach Orchard, which centers around the concept of kami. In this dream the viewer follows a young boy. Its “Doll Day,” you are shown a close up of doll figurines in the boys home. The young boy chases after a girl only he can see. She leads him to a barren peach orchard where “Dolls” are standing. They threaten the boy, telling him to listen carefully or they will not return to his home. The Dolls are upset because the boys family cut down all the trees in the peach orchard, and “Doll Day” is to celebrate the arrival of the peach blossoms. Without the trees how can you celebrate their blooming? The boy tells the dolls why he is so distraught over the loss of the peach trees; “Peaches can be bought but where can you buy a whole orchard in bloom?” Seeing that the boy has respect for nature they grant him one last time to see the trees bloom. The dolls turn into the peach trees in full bloom; the boy spots the young girl again among the peach trees and runs after her, up through the orchard. The trees, all that is left are their stumps. The boy goes to the top of the orchard and finds that there is one small tree left in bloom. The dream ends.
My take on the girl is that she represented the spirt of the last peach tree and came to the boy in physical form to show him the beauty of nature, to make sure he still respected the orchard.
In Shinto there is an important theme of the presence and power of Kami, spirits, natural forces, or the essence in Shinto faith. Only the most powerful in nature are divine, kami. Ancient Japanese thought of matter and spirit to be inseparable; so the connection of kami, spirit, and the peach trees, matter is extremely strong, they are one with each other. That is why the deities, or dolls present themselves to the boy, they have been scorned. Followers of Shinto are grateful for the blessings Kami present to them. By having respect for the peach orchard, and nature in general, the boy has respect for Shinto as a whole.
I also watched The Peach Orchard and I basically had the same opinion that you did. This dream provided a great example of how something can be kami to one person and not to another. To the boy the peach orchard was very powerful and kami, but to his parents whom cut the trees down it was obviously just another orchard.
ReplyDeleteI also chose to watch The Peach Orchard. I also felt that the girl was representative of the last peach tree. I had a similar view in my blog about how the peach blossoms are kami.
ReplyDeleteAnother Taoist concept that I took from this part of the film is that sinning against sacred objects is an important action not to commit. Only knowing before the value of the orchard, the boy feels regret at hearing of his family's actions, learning the importance of sacred objects.
ReplyDelete*Shinto not Taoist, the quiz today had me in a "pooh" frame of mind.
ReplyDeleteI watched this segment of the video as well, and agree with you that the girl that the boy sees represents a spirit of nature. I thought it was good how you pointed out that the whole situation served as a learning experience to deepen the boys understanding of Shinto, as well as his overall respect for nature and the spirits. I also liked how you quoted the boy, I thought the line where he talks about how peaches can be bought but an orchard in bloom can't be bought was really good, especially since the spirits were poking fun at him.
ReplyDeleteI also watched "The Peach Orchard" and honestly i feel really stupid reading everyone else's responses. I did not pick up on the fact that the dolls in the first scene were the ones that met the boy in the peach orchard. That being said, I did pick up on the Kami being the actual peach orchard itself. The Shinto belief in Kami finds that matter and spirit are one in the same. For the boy, the peach orchard represented his own personal Kami.
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