Section of the Dream Diary (Yume no ki)

This lengthy fragment of Myōe's Dream Record bears an uncharacteristically complete date: the sixteenth day of the eighth month of 1225. On this day three tutelary shrines were to be dedicated at Kōzanji, but the ceremonies were held up by a typhoon. The first ten lines describe the actual events, while the remaining eleven lines record Myōe's two dreams on that night. A fragment of the Dream Record still extant at Kōzanji contains nearly identical wording, although it lacks the final six lines. Both versions have been translated into French by Frederic Girard, who regards this as the earlier and more complete version.[1]

The installation of deities (kami) in the three shrines was an occasion of considerable importance for the Kōzanji community, and at least two other accounts of the ceremony survive. One of these, by Myōe’s closest follower and biographer, Kikai (1178–1250), who participated in the ceremonies, is a detailed and vivid record that includes the debate questions (mondo), descriptions of the weather, and explanations of Myōe’s two dreams.[2] The second account appears in the official temple history, Origin Tales of Kōzanji, written by Kōshin (1191–ca. 1263).[3]

According to all of these records, the three east­ facing tutelary shrines and their worship hall were still under construction in 1225. Myōe decided to invite deities from three countries to reside there, ranking them according to the dreams recorded here. Byakkō (White Light), a deity of the Himalayan snows, occupied the most important central shrine. The prominence of this otherwise unknown deity stems from Myōe’s meditative practices focused on Shakyamuni's radiance.[4] The second-rank shrine, on the south, was for the Great-Illuminating Deity of the Kasuga Shrine, who had protected Myōe throughout his life and delivered the fateful oracles that led to the founding of Kōzanji (see cat. no. 27). To the north Myōe invited the female deity Zenmyō of Silla (Korea), who "vowed to protect Kegon" through her transformations into a dragon and a rock.[5] Zenmyō was the namesake of Kōzanji's affiliated nunnery, Zenmyōji, established in the wake of the Shokyii War of 1221, where her carved embodiment (shintai) had been installed in 1224. Embodiments of Byakkō and Zenmyō, three pairs of Chinese lions and Korean dogs, and a complete transcription of the Flower Garland Sutra (Kegongyō) were all dedicated and placed in the Byakkō shrine by Gyōkan (1169–after 1225), a high­ ranking cleric of Ninnaji. On the day of the ceremony the assembled monks huddled in the worship hall as rain poured outside. As the ceremony progressed, the clouds suddenly parted and a ray of bright sunlight shone down. All who witnessed the event interpreted the rain and the sun as auspicious signs of Zenmyō's and Byakkō's protection of the temple. Although the shrine precinct has since dis­ appeared, the sculptures of the two kami and six animals, the sutra volumes, and Gyōkan's handwritten dedicatory vow all survive to the present day.

Myōe’s two dreams determined his ranking of Byakkō, the Kasuga deity, and Zenmyō; both involve his interpretations of people in his dreams as incarnations of these deities. In the first dream he sees a pavilion in one room of which sits his recently deceased follower Dōchū (1178–1223), and in the adjoining room the nun Maya gozen. Myōe writes that Dōchū and Maya live in separate places, but they have come together so that Dōchū can instruct her in proper vow-taking practice. In the second dream Myōe sees an aristocratic acquaintance, the lay monk Fujiwara Chikayasu. He regrets that he cannot visit him, because he is engaged with another matter at the residence of Lady Sanmi. There he sees a portrait painting on the wall that does not look like Chikayasu. In their accounts Kikai and Koshin explain the rather complicated connections between these two dreams and the installation of Kōzanji's tutelary deities. Myōe is said to have viewed Dōchū as Byakkō. Kikai goes on to identify Maya gozen as a daughter of Yuasa Munemitsu, hence Myōe’s cousin, whom Myōe recognizes as Zenmyō. As for Chikayasu, Kikai records a lengthier version of the dream wherein Chikayasu claims to be the brother of the Ichijo Prime Minister (Konoe Iezane, 1179–1242). Myōe then paints Chikayasu's portrait, but discovers that he has actually drawn his own face. Myōe ponders the implication of the "brother" relationship and states that a Fujiwara-born prime minister must take precedence over a woman of his own family, hence the Kasuga deity ranks higher than Zenmyō.

The fourth person mentioned in these dreams, Lady Sanmi (Jishi, ca. 1170s–after 1244), was one of Myōe’s first benefactors. She contributed to the building of Kōzanji and fostered Myōe’s growing reputation among the Konoe branch of the Fujiwara family. A member of the imperial wet nurse family, she was raised together with Emperor Gotoba (1180–1239). Her older sister became Gotoba's empress, and Lady Sanmi served at court as wetnurse of her own nephew (Tsuchimikado, 1195–1231). She had become Myōe’s patron by 1216, contributing the main icon of Shakyamuni to Kōzanji's Golden Hall in 1219. Following Gotoba's failed rebellion in 1221, Lady Sanmi retired from court and largely withdrew from Kōzanji's affairs. Myōe’s dream of being at her residence, however, suggests they were in contact as late as 1225.

Seals: Kōzanji; Hōbenchiin; two unidentified seals

Ex coll.: Kōzanji; Yamanaka collection
Literature: Shimizu and Rosenfield 1984–85

Karen L. Brock. In Miyeko Murase, The Written Image. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2002, cat. no. 28.

[1] Girard 1990, pp. 194–95, and Girard 1999.
[2] Known either as "Kikai's Debate" or "Kikai at Age 48"; see Koizumi 1987. Curiously, Kikai completely omits the event in his official Life of Myōe, written seven or eight years later. Kōzanji shiryo 1968– , vol. 1, pp. 9-80; the event should appear on pp. 58–59.
[3] Kōzanji shiryō 1968–, vol. 1, pp. 642–43.
[4] Tanabe, G. 1992, pp. 137–52.
[5] Brock 1990.

Marking: The rectangular seal at upper right reads 'Kozanji' and another seal within the text reads 'Hobenchi-in,' a subtemple at Kozanji, referring to the original owner of the document. At lower left are two unidentifiable seals which must have belonged to a more recent collector.

Sylvan Barnet and William Burto , Cambridge, MA (until 2014; donated to MMA).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Seasonal Pleasures in Japanese Art, Part II," May 1–September 8, 1996.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Written Image: Japanese Calligraphy and Paintings from the Sylvan Barnet and William Burto Collection," October 1, 2002–March 2, 2003.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Arts of Japan Galleries," February 2–July 28, 2013.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Kyoto: Capital of Artistic Imagination," July 24, 2019–January 31, 2021.