The Pillow Book

The Pillow Book is a collection of reflections written by Japanese gentlewoman Sei Shonagon as a kind of journal during the 990s and early 1000s. Though her world would have been familiar to her audience, which experienced her reflections only after they were unintentionally released, parts of The Pillow Book may seem opaque to 21st-century readers unfamiliar with Japan’s 11th-century Heian court.

Even so, Shonagon’s vivid descriptions of nature, her fascination with royal spectacle, and her tendency to gossip, have a timeless quality. Some reviewers have remarked that parts ofThe Pillow Book feel uncannily similar to a Tumblr account, a listicle, or Twitter feed a young woman might write in our own century.

Shonagon describes a deep interest in the art of poetry. Many of her delicately crafted poems describe relationships with the Empress Teishi, who presides over the Heian court, as well as many male courtiers. Literacy is a mark of class in the Heian court, and nothing is more elegant and respectable than writing, memorizing, and reciting both Chinese and Japanese poems with ease. Shonagon earns a reputation, and many close relationships, through her skillful attention to language.