Tales of Dreams in Japanese Scrolls

A Wakeful Sleep by Tosa Mitsunobi (c. 15th/16th Century)

“*Utatane soshi emaki (A Wakeful Sleep)*, Artist / Origin: Tosa Mitsunobu (Japanese, 1434–1525), Region: East Asia, Date: Late 15th–early 16th century, Period: 1400 CE – 1800 CE, Material: Ink, color, and gold on paper, Medium: Painting, Location: National Museum of Japanese History, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, Credit: National Museum of Japanese History, Chiba Prefecture, Japan.”

“Working in collaboration with the courtier-scholar Sanjonishi Sanetaka (1455–1537), imperial court painter Tosa Mitsunobu created some of the most impressive examples of the small narrative scrolls known as ko-e in fifteenth-century Japan.”

“A Wakeful Sleep is a notable example of a Japanese dream tale. This particular scroll tells the story of a young female courtier who falls asleep while gazing at the cherry tree in her garden. She dreams first of receiving a beautiful love letter, then later, of being visited by her lover—a man she has never met in real life. The images in A Wakeful Sleep occupy an ambiguous space between dreams and reality. In this particular image we see the woman sleeping, but are left to wonder whether we are looking at the world as it exists or the world conjured through her dreaming.”

Source: https://test-learnermedia.pantheonsite.io/series/art-through-time-a-global-view/dreams-and-visions/utatane-soshi-emaki-a-wakeful-sleep/