The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon

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Sei Shōnagon

History

Jul 31, 2018

The daughter of a poet, Sei Shōnagon was a lady-in-waiting to the empress Sadako in the last decade of the tenth century. During her service she composed the Pillow Book, which remains an unrivaled source of detailed information on Heian court life, filled with descriptions of ceremonies and manners and with caustic judgments of people and pastimes. Yet the lasting appeal of the Pillow Book reaches beyond its historical importance, and modern readers will be rewarded—“entranced” may be a better word—by the book’s revelation of its author’s personality. Sei Shōnagon’s brilliant prose style is matched by her considerable poetic gifts, and both are complemented by her penchant for gossip and acerbic remarks. Across the gulf of more than a millennium, her wit and intelligence remain seductive, and her eloquence holds the reader rapt.

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