54 pages • 1 hour read
The Pillow Book
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Chapters 150-198Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapters 150-158 Summary
Chapter 150 lists “people who look as though things are difficult for them,” a list which includes men with two jealous lovers or people who are “constantly irritable” (151). The next chapter, which lists “people who seem enviable,” explains Shonagon’s jealousy of those who can perform the written word elegantly and eloquently (151).
She also outlines “things whose outcome you long to know,” like the end result of dyeing fabrics or the sex of a child (153). These items are not unrelated to the “occasions for anxious waiting,” which she lists next (153). A letter from a far away lover, traffic on the way to a festival, or the sending away of a person who “has called whom you would prefer didn’t know you were there” are all occasions for anxious waiting (154).
Shonagon explains, in Chapter 154, that the Empress has traveled to Aitadokoro during the mourning period for the Regent. She and her ladies arrive after dark, but in the morning Shonagon observes that the building is “a strange and charming place” (155). It is also, though, “incredibly hot,” and so they sleep on the veranda (156).
