I heard a slightly strange story from my parents. About 25 years ago, my father was transferred to a place called Hachijojima. In the garden of the company-provided house (a detached dwelling) there, a single summer orange tree was planted. According to the landlord, "It has been over ten years since it was planted, but it has never borne a single piece of fruit."
Some time later, when my mother became pregnant, countless summer oranges grew on that tree. Feeling an eerie premonition, my mother consulted a famous local shrine maiden (sort of a shaman) on the island, who told her, "This summer orange tree is a dwelling place for a god, so build a shrine and enshrine it."
When she did as she was told, overnight, every single one of those summer oranges fell from the tree. After that, I was safely born.
When she became pregnant with my younger sister, only two fruits grew on the tree. When she consulted the shrine maiden, she said, "The child in your womb is a twin, and the god of this tree says it is going to take both of them." Apparently, they really were twins.
My mother desperately begged her to save them. The shrine maiden then told her, "Two is impossible. If it's just one, there might be a way. Is that acceptable?" So she begged her to do so.
Then, the shrine maiden took one of the two summer oranges, offered it to the household's built-in Shinto altar, and began to pray. When the prayer finished, the shrine maiden said, "I somehow managed to save just one. As for the other, I am sorry, but the god has taken it." Hearing that, my mother could not stop crying.
A while later, she gave birth, but one of the twins was stillborn. When telling this story, my mother weeps, saying, "I feel so sorry for the child who was taken away back then."
Since they moved away right after my younger sister was born, they never figured out whether that "God of the Summer Orange Tree" was a good god or a bad god.
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