Akira Kurosawa’s dreams: creating an unconsciousautobiography

Michael Stratton, MSW, ACSW*790 W. Lake Lansing Road, #300, East Lansing, MI 48823, USA

Introduction

This paper explores a film of Akira Kurosawa’sthat depicts representations of significant dreams hehad during the course of his life. The author uses eachepisode as a separate prism to view perspectives ofworking with, and appreciating, dreams.

At age 80, the Japanese filmmaker Akira Kuro-sawa filmed representations of eight significantdreams he’d had during the course of his life. Increating the film, “Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams,” herevealed himself more fully than he did in his ownautobiography. Each dream can be used to view adifferent perspective of dreams and working withdreams—our own, and our clients—to help us enrichour understanding of the mystery and the power thatlies within and beyond our dreams.

The relation between dreaming and films is par-allel in this sense: perhaps dreams mean to the indi-vidual what films mean to the society (Stratton,2000). Some creative artifact that spins a new per-spective, sometimes enlightening, sometimes depict-ing, other times obscuring a specific issue or dy-namic.

In an effort to avoid reductive thinking, this articlewill focus on dream appreciation rather than dreaminterpretation. So much of the focus on dream workhas been to understand their meaning, leaving us withsimplistic answers for symbols that may have manylayers and resonate in different ways in response todifferent tones.

Akira Kurosawa was born in Tokyo in 1910. Hisearly life was significantly shaped by two losses—his

sister’s death when he was in the 4th grade and hisbrother’s suicide when Akira was 23 (Kurosawa,1983). Though his family had a samurai’s bloodline(Richie, 1996), Kurosawa was turned down by themilitary (Kurosawa, 1983).

An artist at an early age, Kurosawa displayedtalents in painting and a strong interest in literature.One of his early paintings was displayed at the pres-tigious Nitten Exhibition, when he was 18 (Kuro-sawa, 1983). The cost of paints and canvas proved tobe expensive, so Kurosawa looked for a job andapplied to become an assistant director for a film-maker—a job he found in the classified section of anewspaper. Perhaps the only time a painter turned tothe medium of film because of the expense of paints.By 1935, he was working on films.

Kurosawa displayed an interest in tackling storieswith strong themes. His early film, “Ikuru” (1952),tells the story of a bureaucrat who finds he has 6months to live. The irony is that he was more deadthan alive before getting his diagnosis. Another earlyfilm “Rashomon” (1950), was even more controver-sial. In this film, Kurosawa depicts an episode of arobbery, murder, and rape. A bandit comes upon acouple traveling through the forest. He robs them,rapes the woman, and kills the man. The story is toldin flashbacks from three perspectives—first thewoman, then the bandit, and finally the ghost of themurdered man. Like Picasso’s infamous painting,Nudes Descending a Staircase or Einstein’s workwith relativity, Kurosawa shows how the same phe-nomena can be viewed from different perspectives.

“Rashomon” was a huge critical hit and won boththe Grand Prix at the Venice Film Festival, and theAmerican Academy Award for Best Foreign Lan-guage Film. Even though the studios hadn’t wanted* E-mail address:dreamtrane@aol.com (M. Stratton).

The Arts in Psychotherapy 28 (2001) 103–108

0197-4556/01/$ – see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.PII: S0197-4556(00)00100-3

to make the film, they eventually came around toattempt to take credit (Kurosawa, 1983).

Other Kurosawa films are more familiar to theAmerican public—his hit, “The Seven Samurai”(1954), was remade into the western “The Magnifi-cent Seven.” “Yojimbo” (1961) became “A Fistful ofDollars” and more recently “The Last Man Stand-ing.” Kurosawa created Japanese versions of Shake-speare’s MacBeth (“The Throne of Blood”, 1957)and King Lear (“Ran”, 1985). George Lucas has sitedAkira Kurosawa’s film “The Hidden Fortress” (1958)as a primary influence on his film, “Star Wars.”Kurosawa’s film “High and Low” (1963) plays as asubtle mix of Dostoevsky and Hitchcock.

At age 80 Kurosawa made a most personal film—“Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams” (1990)—a depiction of8 of the most significant dreams he’d had in his life.In making this film, the octogenarian filmmakerstated, “When man dreams, he is a genius” (blurbattributed to Kurosawa on videotape cover). Kurosa-wa’s dreams reveal him more completely than doeshis own autobiography.

Kurosawa’s film works as a kaleidoscope to viewseveral different aspects of the phenomenon ofdreaming. Engaging this perspective, not only doesKurosawa stand paradoxically both revealed andshrouded in exquisite mystery, we are able to alsofurther explore our own lives through the viewing ofthe most primitive yet advanced aspects of our-selves—our dreams.

Sunshine Through the Rain

In this first dream, Kurosawa is a little boy, perhaps4 or 5 years old. It is raining. His mother emergesfrom the house and says “You’re staying home. Thesun is shining but it’s raining. Foxes hold theirwedding processions in just this kind of weather.They don’t like to be seen. If they see you they’ll bevery angry.”

The boy goes out into the forest. Eventually hesees a mist, then a figure emerging from the mist,then several. Music begins to play. Even though theywalk on two legs, it’s clear—it is the wedding pro-cession of the foxes.

The boy tries to hide behind a tree but the foxesare wary—they see him and he runs home.

His mother is waiting for him at the gate.“You saw something you shouldn’t have. I can’t

let you in now. An angry fox came looking for you.He left this.” She hands the boy a knife.

“You’re supposed to kill yourself. Go quicklyand apologize—give them the knife and tell themyou’re sorry.”

As she closes the door she says, “They don’tusually forgive. You must be ready to die.”

The boy says, “I don’t know where they live.”

“You’ll find out,” says the mother. “On days likethis there are always rainbows. The foxes live underthe rainbows.”

This dream ends with Kurosawa, the boy, walk-ing out in fields of flowers, walking towards therainbow.

How many ways can we look at this dream?Certainly, Freud would have been impressed by theOedipal implications–from the viewing of the primalscene to castration anxiety. With Freud’s master-work, “The Interpretation of Dreams,” he broughtdream work into the realm of science (Freud, 1990).Freud saw dream interpretation as an essential ele-ment for self-analysis. Freud also viewed dreamsthrough a perspective of ‘abnormal psychic phenom-ena’ along with obsessions, delusions, and hystericalphobias (Van De Castle, 1994, p. 128, 138). Eventhough Freud saw dreams as ‘the royal road to theunconscious’ (Borbely, 1986 p. 67), he also saw theunconscious through the perspective of pathology.

According to Van De Castle (1994), Carl Jung, adisciple of Freud before a personal and professionalsplit between the men, contributed several conceptsin looking at dreams. On the one hand, he deniedholding a specific theory on dreams, stating that oneneeded to take each dream on it’s own terms. On theother hand, Jung (1965) developed the concepts ofarchetypes, the shadow, and the collective uncon-scious, all of which may be lenses through which toview dreams.

One key difference between Freud and Jung’sperspectives is that Freud believed that dream sym-bols were essentially in place to disguise the realintent of the dream, while Jung believed that symbolswere meant to illuminate the true intent, albeit inmetaphoric language (Van De Castle, 1994).

Alfred Adler felt that one should interpret only the“headlines” of dreams, and thought that not remem-bering one’s dreams might be a sign of good mentalhealth (Van De Castle, 1994, p. 178).

A study of Holocaust survivors seems to supportthis claim. Kaminer and Lavie defined the level ofhow ‘well adjusted’ survivors felt and acted (Lavie,1993, p.83). A high percentage (55%) of those whorated themselves as most ‘well adjusted’ rememberedvery few of their dreams, compared with those whohad adjustment difficulties (33%) (Lavie, 1993, p.83). A question that remains: is it a sign of being‘well adjusted’ to not remember dreams, or aredreams informing us that there is work to address?

According to Van De Castle (1994), Fritz Perlsbelieved that the dream is a projection of rejectedparts of the dreamer (much like Jung’s concept of theshadow). “The dream is an existential message to

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yourself” (p192). The focus of Perls was less onunderstanding, and more on the experience.

Thomas Moore (1992) wrote “It is much better tolet the dream interpret us rather than for us to becomeclever in interpreting the dream in ways most com-patible with our existing ideas” (p. 292). James Hill-man (1979) notes, “At night the dream has me, but inthe morning I say, I had a dream” (p. 98).

Looking over the different theories we may ask,“Which is correct?” Rather than selecting either/ordualistic choices, we may follow Kurosawa’s lead inmaking “Rashomon” and recognize there is morethan one perspective to the phenomena of dreams.

In “Sunshine Through The Rain,” the child Ku-rosawa writes a beautiful fable, a myth, a poem, thatperfectly captures a time of his life, full of fears andmysteries and conflicts and wonder.

The Peach Orchard

In this dream, Kurosawa is a boy, a few years olderthan the boy in the dream of the foxes. He is servingrice to his sisters and guests in their home. Porcelainfigures in period costumes line the wall of hishome—they represent his ancestors.

The boy looks at his sister in puzzlement. “Ithought there were six of you,” he says, looking tothe six bowls of rice he has brought. There are onlyfive at the table. As he serves, he notices the sixthgirl in the hall. She only seems visible to him. Theboy chases her into the peach orchard outside. Thepeach orchard is barren, as his family has cut itdown.

Suddenly the boy is confronted with life-sizedversions of the porcelain dolls that had been in thehouse—and they are angry with his family for cut-ting down the peach orchard. The boy begins to cryand says he loved the garden.

The dolls take pity on him and tell him they willshow him the peach orchard in full bloom oncemore. They begin a dance; suddenly he is in thepresence of blooming trees, the petals fall like snow.

The boy sees the mysterious girl once again andbegins to chase her, but now she disappears and theorchard is barren once again.

This dreams ends with the boy standing in thepresence of a single peach tree blossoming.

The death of Kurosawa’s sister resonates power-fully in this dream—however, just as Kurosawa rec-onciles with the history of the peach orchard, let usview a history of dreams.

Dreams have been significant throughout history.In 3000 BC in ancient Mesopotamia, the stories ofthe hero Gilgamesh were the first written chroniclesof sequential dreams by the same dreamer, thus thefirst recorded ‘dream journal.’ Egyptian priests wereengaged in dream interpretation 4,000 years ago (Van

De Castle, 1994, p. 48, 52). In the Book of Genesis inthe Old Testament found in The Bible, King JamesVersion (1995), there are over 30 references todreams or dreaming. Joseph and his coat of manycolors showed thousands of years before Freud thatthe interpretation of dreams could lead to a royalinheritance (as well as resolve family of origin is-sues!).

Greeks were followers of dreams. Homer wrote ofthem in the Iliad and the Odyssey. Plato wrote vol-umes on dreams. Aristotle believed that dreamsmight indicate or diagnose physical ailments (Van DeCastle, 1994, p. 64).

The connection between spirituality and dreams ispronounced. Buddha’s mother had a dream of hisimmaculate conception, and many of the events ofthe birth and early years of Jesus were told throughdreams. Muhammad was given his divine mission ina dream, and much of the Koran came to him indreams (Van De Castle, 1994, p.39, 41) .

During the ‘dark ages’, dreaming became danger-ous - nightmares might indicate possession or witch-ery (Van De Castle, 1994, p. 81). After the Renais-sance, there began a rekindling of interest in dreams,as there was in all of the arts. Numerous writersbegan to speculate on dreams before Freud’s work atthe turn of the century.

The Blizzard

As a grown man, Kurosawa is leading several climb-ers across the face of a mountain in the midst of aterrible blizzard. The men are tied together at thewaist and Kurosawa is in the lead. Eventually themen begin to wear down, become discouraged, andlie down to fall asleep. Kurosawa tries to encouragethem on, then attempts to awaken them, but finallyhe falls asleep himself, only to awaken to a ferociouswoman—a snow woman from Japanese folk lore—who is attempting to place an icy blanket across him.As he sees her, she flies away.

Now the blizzard has lifted and Kurosawa seesthat camp is within easy reach. He awakens his menand they are safe.

The problem solving qualities of dreams are con-siderable. One suggestion for the progression ofproblem solving is as follows: first, the dream pre-sents a conflict; next, there will be the attemptedresolution; finally, the dream presents the uncon-scious solution. Often, the solution is rejected by theconscious mind, as it will appear to be giving up,surrender, or simply nonsensical. Yet, as Kurosawagave in to his fears of inertia, becoming as frozen ashis colleagues, and facing his fears and mythic de-mons, he is freed.

J. Allen Hobson (1995) states that “There are

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three neuromodulators in the brain stem. They deter-mine mood and memory, cognition and emotion. Butthey change during sleep. In REM sleep, your brain isbeing bathed in a totally different chemical bath” (p.41). If dreams do aid learning and problem solving,they do so in a different way than occurs in wakingconsciousness.

A colleague of mine told me of working on hisdissertation. He was frustrated, as his data seemed tocontradict his hypothesis. He set an appointment withhis advisor, and that night dreamed that he saw, onhis kitchen table, his completed dissertation–rightdown to the title and reconciling the paradox of hisdata (Miller, personal communication, 1994).

This is not new. The scientists involved in thebreakthroughs associated with the table of elements,insulin, the benzene molecule, and DNA, all creditdreams with assisting them in making the leap to-wards these discoveries (Van De Castle, 1994).

The list of artistic works influenced by dreams iseven longer. Artists such as Jasper Johns, Jean Depre,Henri Rousseau, and of course Salvadore Dali, allcredit dreams as inspirations to specific paintings orsculptures. Robert Louis Stevenson, Jack Kerouac,William Burroughs, and Coleridge found inspirationfor books or poems. There are examples of ‘dreaminspired’ art to be found in every art form (Van DeCastle, 1994, p. 11).

Our dreams can be problem solvers. They caninform us, guide us, correct us, and organize us. AsAristotle suggested, dreams may have diagnostic ca-pabilities.

The Tunnel

In this dream, Kurosawa is “The Commander,” andis dressed in a Japanese uniform of WWII. He walksdown a road in the country and approaches a darktunnel. A growling dog, bathed in red light, emergesfrom the tunnel, then goes back into the darkness.Filled with dread, Kurosawa proceeds into the tun-nel. He emerges unscathed on the other side, butknows he’s being followed. A soldier emerges fromthe tunnel behind him. Kurosawa recognizes him—this was a soldier in his command—a soldier whodied in his arms. Kurosawa tells him that he is dead,and the soldier returns to the tunnel. Then Kurosawahears a battalion of men marching out of the tunnel.He confronts them all, and tells them that he orderedthem all into a battle where they died. Only hesurvived, but only as a prisoner—and he orders themback into the tunnel. Now the dog returns, bathed inred light, growling at Kurosawa.

A very basic way to interpret dreams is to de-scribe them as pictures of feelings (Corriere & Hart,1977). Though Kurosawa was never in the military,

could he have devised a more eloquent enactment ofhis own shame and guilt over his surviving the war?Or even surviving his own family after the death oftwo siblings? Even this is too simplistic, too flat andreductive.

In a quote referring to poetry, that could alsoapply to dreams, Michigan poet and author Jim Har-rison (1991) writes: “ Poetry at it’s best is the lan-guage your soul would speak if you could teach yoursoul to speak.” He also writes, “As a poet I am thebird, not the ornithologist. . . ” (p.294). Again, thisseems true of the dreamer.

Crows

A college aged Kurosawa is in an art gallery. He’sviewing the paintings of Van Gogh. As he views thepainting “Bridge At Arles,” he enters the paintingand is walking the landscape as if it were real. Hefinds himself carrying paintbrushes. He encountersVan Gogh himself (in the film played by the direc-tor, Martin Scorsese). Van Gogh asks Kurosawa,“Why aren’t you painting?”

Van Gogh describes his need to paint, and de-scribes himself as a locomotive. “A beautiful scenedoes not make a painting!”

Van Gogh collects his easel, paints and brushesand hurries off. Kurosawa hurries after him, butfinds himself walking through landscapes that nowbecome paintings themselves (an inspiration for themovie, “What Dreams May Come”). The sky fillswith crows.

As a student of painting, Kurosawa (1983) stat-ed: After looking at a monograph on Cezanne, Iwould step outside and the houses, streets, andtrees—everything—looked like a Cezanne painting.The same thing would happen when I looked at abook of Van Gogh’s paintings. . . they changed theway the real world looked to me.

Just as the artist changes the perspective of theviewer, so does the dream shift the perspective of thedreamer. Consider narrative theory—viewing a cli-ent’s story, or our own, as a rich novel as opposed toa patchwork of pathology. Imagine for a moment ifthe same story—perhaps your own, were told bydifferent authors: Maya Angelou, or Stephen King,Jerzy Kozinski, or Charles Dickens.

What if the same film script, say “Gone With theWind,” were reshot by different directors? StevenSpielberg? Spike Lee? The Coen brothers?

A shift in perspective, whether considering ourown story, or using the lens of a work of art or eventhe art we produce at night—our dreams—can offerus a cornucopia of options for perception.

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Mt. Fuji in Red

In this dream, an adult Kurosawa walks amid a mob.Mt. Fuji is erupting. Four nuclear reactors haveexploded. Throngs are running in panic.

Suddenly, there is only Kurosawa, a youngmother and her 2 children, and a businessman,standing at the side of a cliff near the ocean.

Kurosawa asks, “Where did they go?”“To the bottom of the sea,” says the business-

man. He begins to explain to Kurosawa the differentcolors of the clouds of radiation, and the effects theywill have on him.

After the businessman throws himself into thesea, the dream ends with Kurosawa trying to protecthimself, the young mother and the children from thepoisonous gas by waving his jacket at the purpleclouds of poisonous radioactive gas.

Another helpful way to view dreams is that we areall parts of our dreams. Using this tool we see that:

Kurosawa is Mount Fuji in red, about to blowKurosawa is the multitudes, running in panicKurosawa is the business manKurosawa is the mother protecting her chil-

drenKurosawa is the children, terrified and helplessKurosawa is the seaKurosawa, finally, is Kurosawa

A technique developed by a colleague of mine,calls for the dreamer to view a dream from the per-spective of that part of the dream which is particu-larly upsetting. Using this technique can be particu-larly helpful in working with individuals who havehad recurring, upsetting dreams (Frankforter, per-sonal communication, 1996).

The Weeping Demon

Kurosawa is walking in a wasteland. There are hills,but the ground is as gray as ash. He comes upon ademon with a horn growing out of his head. Thedemon says that he used to be human. He also saysthat the wasteland used to be a beautiful field offlowers, “. . . then, the nuclear missiles. . . ”

We see giant mutated dandelions, the size oftrees, and the demon enumerates the monstrositiesof this landscape: “A two faced rabbit, a hairy fish.”

“What do you eat?” asks Kurosawa.“There is no food! We feed on ourselves!”Kurosawa hears other moans, and the demon

explains, “At night, the famous demons cry out.Their horns hurt worse than cancer. Come, I’ll showyou.”

The demon leads Kurosawa to watch a group ofdemons gathered around blood-red pools of water.They weep and cry in agony.

The demon says that now his horn is beginning

to hurt. He then asks Kurosawa, “Do you want tobecome a demon, too?”

This dream ends with Kurosawa chased downthe mountain by the demon, moving in slow motion.

Many Native American tribes have documentedtheir understanding of the power of dreams (Corriere& Hart, 1977; Castanada, 1972). The dream image isan ally or a spirit guide. Viewed this way, the night-mare is a great image. An ally of terrible power hasvisited with an important message. The messagemust be important, why else send such a strongspirit?

The underlying message of the Native Americanperspective is to “live with,” within harmony of thedream, an understanding of the cycle of life, and therelationship between the dreamer and the spiritworld. “Learn to control your dreams,” which is theemphasis of much dream work, would be the antith-esis of Native American understanding of dreams.

In the book, The Road to Ixtlan, Carlos Castanada(1972) meets the Yaqui Indian sorcerer, Don Juan.Don Juan tells him, “A warrior is a man who seekspower, and one of the avenues to power is dream-ing. . . although he doesn’t call them dreams, he callsthem real” (p. 118).

The nightmare image may be the personificationof Carl Jung’s (1965) ‘shadow’—all those parts ofourselves that we have chosen to disown. Dreamsdon’t let us.

Village of the Water Wheels

Kurosawa comes upon a natural utopia—a villagewhere people live in harmony with one another andwith nature. He meets an old man who explains theworkings of the village to him.

Kurosawa asks the old man about electricity,who says that there is no electricity.

“What about the night,” asks Kurosawa, “isn’t itdark?”

“Yes,” says the old man, “that’s what night issupposed to be”.

At the end of the dream there is a joyous funeralprocession—an elder in the village is about to die—and Kurosawa joins the parade at the head—a pa-rade that contains children and dancing and a brassband.

It is difficult not to contrast this last image—Kurosawa in the parade celebrating a funeral, withthe image of Kurosawa the boy hiding from theprocession of the foxes. Now he is celebrating in aparade, dancing a dance of life and death. A dancethat we dance, even now.

Kurosawa died at age 88At my home in Michigan, there is a tree in my

front yard that blossoms in the spring, an explosion of

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fragrant tiny white petals; green leaves offer shade inthe summer; in the fall there is a spectacular tapestryof yellows and browns; and, in the dead of winter, thetree blossoms once more—bright red berries againstthe Michigan snow.

Kurosawa offered a rich blossoming of creativity,throughout his entire life span. By sharing his dreamswith us, Kurosawa invites us to join this blossoming,and dance in this parade.

The Michigan poet, Jim Harrison (1991) wrote:

I continue to dream myself back to what I lost, andcontinue to lose and regain, to an earth where I ama fellow creature and to a landscape I call home.When I return I can offer my family, my writing, myfriends, a portion of the gift I’ve been given byseeking it out, consciously or unconsciously. Themystery is still there (p. 317–18).

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