Japanese dreams: culture and cosmology

Attitudes to dream evaluation vary depending on culture. Dreams are considered important, real, and public in some cultures, but absurd, irrational and personal in others. Japan has its own history of dreaming, which can be well reconstructed due to rich sources of archeological and documentary material. In this paper dream evolution in Japan is described. Phase 1 is the prehistoric Jomon period, where people believed dreams were part of reality. From Phase 2, the sophisticated philosophies of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism were introduced and changed the social and mental system of Japan in phase 3. At phase 4, the amalgamation of local and alien cultures occurred and supernatural beliefs prevailed. In this society dreams played a very important role. Phase 5 is the period when the Samurai class ruled Japan. The pragmatic thinking of the Samurai succeeded in fostering good preconditions for the receipt of scientific Western culture in phase 6. The importance of dreams in Japan evolved in such a way. However, the elements of each phase continued and accumulated similar layers. Thus, a majority of the phases seemed to retain animism from the Jomon period.