Dream as Memory, Dream as History : Hanazono-In's Dream Notes and the Royal Authority of the Jimyoin-tou Line(<Special Issue>The Medieval Bridge between the Past and the Future)

Abstract

Here I will analyze the spatiality and temporality of the dream notes of which Hanazono-In took three times when he had a dream of Sugawara-no-Michizane or Kitano Tenjin. The notes show that the function of his dream was not wish fulfillment but a sort of oracle. Moreover, as his firm belief in the dream vision suggests, it was even expected to serve as a step to actually achieve something in the future. In this sense, his dream notes offer a space where some different levels of time - the present and the future - are coexistent with each other.