From the Dream Diary of Ryo Tatsuki to the Eruption of Mount Fuji
Please note that some people may find this article disturbing as it reports the allegedly real story of a person who predicted a number of natural disasters with surprising accuracy. I decide to publish it only after having contrasted enough evidences to suggest that the story is real. However, I encourage the reader to take a critical standpoint and research before sharing it with others.
The Dream Diary That Became a Book
Ryo Tatsuki is a Japanese lady that debuted as a manga artist in 1975. From 1980 onward, she claims to have experienced premonitory dreams in repeated occasions, and decided record these in a dream diary notebook. In 1999 she decided to compile the most horrifying ones in a manga book that she titled “私が見た未来” — which translates as “the future that I saw”. Some of those premonitions had already occurred by the time when the book was published, such as the 1995 Kobe earthquake or the death of Freddie Mercury in 1991. However, it wasn’t until 12 years later, in 2011, that the book became very popular in Japan after successfully predicting the great Tōhoku earthquake that struck the east coast of Japan in March 2011. The temblor was followed by a tsunami that brought destruction and caused the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Some conspiracy theorists started to spread false information about Ryo Tatsuki that related her with some sort of malefic organization that triggered the earthquake intentionally and artificially with the goal of controlling the population growth.
The Book Cover
The book cover illustrates a young lady, presumably the author, who is seen crying and covering her left eye with her hand. On the top, the artist shows a selection of 6 pages from the dream diary maintained by the author from 1985 until 1999 — the time during which she claims to have experienced this type of dreams. Titles such as “eruption of Mount Fuji”, “Princess Diana” or “my own funeral” can be seen in the diary pages illustrated in the book cover.
The Dream Diary – Past Predictions
Death of Freddie Mercury
In two different occasions, Ryo Tatsuki dreamed that her best friend’s favorite rock star — who happened to be Queen’s Freddie Mercury — died on that same day 15 and 10 years from then, respectively. According to her diary, in the dreams she also foresighted that a movie would be made in memory of the artist—which occurred in 2018, namely “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Freddie Mercury died on November 24, 1991, exactly 15 and 10 years after her respective dreams.
Date of the dream: November 24, 1976 and November 24, 1981
Predicted date: November 24, 1991 (15 and 10 years later respectively)
1995 Kobe Earthquake
On January 2, 1995, Ryo Tatsuki experienced another premonitory dream that she described in the diary with the terms: “the earth cracks in Kobe, 15 days or 15 years later”. The Great Hanshin earthquake struck Kobe 15 days later, on January 17, in what it became one of the most devastating earthquakes recorded in the region. It is claimed that 20 people who had learnt about Ryo Tatsuki’s premonition actually believed her and decided to evacuate before the disaster.
Date of the dream: January 2, 1995
Predicted date: 15 days or 15 years later
Death of Princess Diana
The manga artist explained that this dream was rather blurry and hard to remember, however she wrote the note “ダイヤナ？死んだ？” in her diary as soon as she woke up, as well as drawing the lady who appeared in her dream. The note translates as “Diana? Died?”.
Date of the dream: August 31, 1992
Predicted date: August 31, 1997 (5 years later)
Artist Retirement
She retired in 2020, 5 years after she had a dream that described in her diary as “my own funeral”. She realized that the funeral was referring to the end of her own profession as a manga artist.
Date of the dream: January 2, 1995
Predicted date: 2000 (5 years later)
2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
On March 11, 1996, “A catastrophe somewhere in Eastern Japan in March 2011” — this is the shocking statement that the manga artist dreamed about. Initially, she decided to publish it in a magazine in 1996 so that people could learn about her premonition before it happened. And 3 years later, in 1999, she made it into one of the manga stories of this book.
Date of the dream: March 11, 1996
Predicted date: March 11, 2011 (15 years later)
COVID-19 Pandemic
One morning in 1995, Ryo Tatsuki wrote in her diary: “in 25 years, an unknown virus will come in 2020, will disappear after peaking in April and appear again 10 years later”. Later in 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the author appeared in social media and apologized for having failed to predict accurately the exact peak of the pandemic—which came with the second and third waves of COVID-19. As a result of this accurate prediction, the book gained again a lot of popularity during 2020, which is illustrated in the graph below where the interest over time in terms of Google search volume is shown for the past 10 years (obtained with Google Trends). Whether or not the coronavirus will return in 2030 as she claimed to predict, remains to be seen.
Date of the dream: January 2, 1995
Predicted date: January 2, 2020
The Dream Diary – Future Predictions to Come
Mount Fuji Eruption
The big eruption of Mount Fuji is perhaps the most horrifying of the predictions made by her. An eruption would be a devastating catastrophe and, according to her dream in 1991, it is due to happen sometime soon. Based on her dream diary, the earliest possible date for the eruption is August 20, 2021, or on the same date every 15 years, until the year 2141. Although Mount Fuji has been dormant for over 300 years, for the last 10 years, Japanese geologists have found clues that may indicate that the volcano is due to erupt soon—hypothesis that aligns well with the timeline that Ryo Tatsuki envisioned.
Date of the dream: August 20, 1991
Predicted date: August 20, 2021, or every 15 years until 2141
Kanagawa Earthquake and Tsunami
Similar to the prediction of the Mount Fuji eruption, Ryo Tatsuki predicted in 1991 that a big earthquake would struck the region of Kanagawa and be followed by a huge tsunami that would wipe the coast. This time, the author did not record the exact date of the dream, except that it was between June and September of that year. According to Ryo Tatsuki, she predicted that this catastrophe would arrive in 2026, or every 15 years, until the year 2131.
Date of the dream: Between June and September, 1991
Predicted date: Between June and September, 2026, or every 15 years until 2131
Conclusion
Some people have tried to explain Ryo Tatsuki’s ability by hypothesizing that while dreaming she reaches the collective unconscious state, which is a theoretical subconscious state of mind that was proposed by the psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung. Some other people are skeptical about her premonitions and attribute it all to mere coincidences. Others just claim this not to be true.
Regardless of what the truth is or what you believe, the fact is that the book was published in 1999 and it has never been edited beyond that date, until it eventually stopped selling. Nowadays it is extremely hard to find any secondhand copy of this book as it is considered a rare item for collectors, selling at around ¥100,000— about $1,000. And who knows what would happen if the predictions about the Mount Fuji eruption and the Kanagawa earthquake happened as predicted. However, let’s just hope that she was wrong this time.
As of today, Ryo Tatsuki enjoys her retired life and no longer experiences premonitory dreams. In the meantime, she is a very active user in the social media where she shares her stories and tries to have a positive impact to the Japanese society by using her past predictions to spread awareness about natural disasters.
