The Pillow Book

The Pillow Book (枕草子, Makura no Sōshi) is a book of observations and musings recorded by Sei Shōnagon during her time as court lady to the Empress Consort Fujiwara no Teishi during the 990s and early 1000s in the Heian period of Japan. The book was completed in the year 1002.

The work is a collection of essays, anecdotes, poems, and descriptive passages that have little connection to one another, except that they express ideas and whims of Shōnagon, spurred by moments in her daily life. In it, she included lists of all kinds, personal thoughts, accounts of interesting events in the court, poetry, and some opinions on her contemporaries. Although it is largely personal, Shōnagon's writing and poetic skill make it interesting as a literary work, and it is valuable as a historical document. Shōnagon meant her writing in The Pillow Book to be private, but part of it was accidentally revealed to the court during her life: "[S]he inadvertently left it [her writing] on a cushion she put out for a visiting guest, who eagerly carried it off despite her pleas." She wrote The Pillow Book for her own enjoyment; it seemed to be a way for her to express thoughts and feelings that she was not allowed to state publicly due to her lower status in the court. Although Shōnagon never intended her work for any eyes other than her own, over the centuries it has become a famous literary work. Six passages from the book were first translated into English in 1889 by T. A. Purcell and W. G. Aston. Other notable English translations have been the partial translation by Arthur Waley in 1928, the first complete translation by Ivan Morris in 1967, and Meredith McKinney's complete translation in 2006.

Starting with the "exhaustiveness" of the "collection of similar things" and how it is represented by "as for worms", "as for the flowers of trees", "hateful things", and "things of beauty" – which have been described anachronistically as "Borgesian lists" – author Sei Shōnagon's "Ramblings" observe the nature of everyday life and the four seasons, and describe in diverse sentences "her recollections" (her diary) that look back at the society of the imperial court surrounding Empress Teishi whom she served, among other things.

According to translator Meredith McKinney, The Pillow Book is a "special case", "a genre-bending miscellany of short, largely unrelated pieces". Shōnagon's writing is categorized into three parts; the first consists of narratives, which focus mainly on the events that she witnessed and experienced during her time in the court, the second consists of her own thoughts and opinions on various matters and topics, and the third were the famous lists, or headings, with one example from Shōnagon's writing being "Things That Make the Heart Grow Fonder." The Pillow Book consists of 164 of these lists total, where they range from aesthetically pleasing items to being less diplomatic than Shōnagon's anecdotes. Three types of classification were proposed by Kikan Ikeda. However, there are sections that are rather ambiguous and are difficult to classify (e.g., in the first paragraph of her ramblings, "As for Spring, (it is) the dawn [that is lovely]", there are objections to common opinions of what is actually meant here).

It is composed primarily in Japanese hiragana, which is a syllabary that is actually derived from Chinese characters, and generally many of her short stories were written in a witty literary style. This style of writing was the native tongue for women in that time period and was used more often by women like Shōnagon. According to Matthew Penney, the only Chinese terms that actually appear in The Pillow Book are in the place-names and personal titles, and the rest is classified as original hiragana. Confessions of her personal feelings are mixed into her writing with occasionally subtle sentimentality that reflects the downfall of the emperor's adviser, Fujiwara no Michitaka (her biological father), as well as the misfortune of both Emperor and Empress Teishi.

Both the author's sophisticated sense and her eye for particular things are fused; for if one compares the sentimentality of mono no aware (the Pathos of Things) as found in The Tale of Genji, similar beauty of the world is revealed through the use of the intellectual word okashi ('lovely') in this piece.

In general, The Pillow Book is written in brief statements, where the length of one paragraph is relatively short, and it is easy to read the contents, even for modern Japanese speakers. The miscellaneous collection has been arranged loosely into three specific types, while the collection of similar things has been compiled by distinct classification, and this so-called compiling was done afterwards by the hands of people other than Sei Shōnagon. Based on the beliefs of certain scholars, most of Shonagon's work was written during her time working in the court; however, some of the later entries were written in her later life, and were just based on her memories of the days and moments she experienced previously in the court.

An aspect that makes Shōnagon's writing in The Pillow Book different from other written diaries of her period and even modern day journals is the fact that she did not invest her time in soul-searching, nor was she searching for the attention or opinions of readers, simply because she did not invest in her writing for others, but only for herself. Shōnagon's focus in The Pillow Book is based on the likes and dislikes of the world, what she is interested in personally, and the delightedness of the world that she viewed and lived in. In the Kyoto Journal article, McKinney explains that Shōnagon is "engaging you [the reader], face to face across the centuries, assuming your familiarity with her and her world, compelling you to nod and smile." The Pillow Book is a collection of anecdotes, lists, and assorted writings that is one of the best sources of information concerning the court society of the 10th century and is considered an influential landmark in the history of Japanese literature. The Pillow Book is written entirely in Japanese. During the late 10th and early 11th centuries, Japanese men typically wrote in Chinese, using characters, while Japanese women wrote exclusively in their native tongue, using hiragana, a syllabary derived from Chinese characters. The Pillow Book is a part of a large tradition of women's literature. The simplicity and charm of Shōnagon's style has been used as an example of the finest Japanese prose to this day. Shōnagon has been described as arrogant and confrontational by many readers, though they describe her as freely expressing her feelings with sharp wit.