I watched the clip of "Sunshine Through the Rain". In this clip the little boy disobeyed his mother by going somewhere he should not have. He was told not to go see these people in the woods because they would get mad. Well he went there anyway and they saw him, basically he got caught. When he returned home his mother would not let him in the house and gave him an object. The people in the woods had came to her and said they saw the little boy and that he must kill himself for the honor of the family. The mom will not even let him go inside, but she told him that he had to kill himself or go find the people and apologize. So, the boy sets off to find the people under the rainbow.
Now I believe this relates to Shinto because of the honor that the mother has. If there is a dishonor the person is expected to commit a ritual suicide. This ritual suicide is to save the family from being dishonored. They think that dishonor is worse than death. This religion also stresses courage. I think that it takes great courage for the mother to be able to tell her own son that he needs to kill himself or find the men and apologize. I am not saying that I agree with it at all, but am trying to put it in the perspective of a Shinto person.
I agree with you completely as far as it taking courage for the mother to give such advise to her son. After reading your post about this story and considering what we've learned about Shinto is quite clear that Shintos don't take dishonor lightly for a mother to even encourage her son to take his life as well. Just seems like that would be hard but they obviously value their rituals to that extent.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your post about Sunshine Through the Rain. I think that the most prominent theme of this film is that death comes before dishonor. The boy disobeyed his mother and therefore it was expected of him that he would kill himself.
ReplyDelete