The Pillow-Book of Sei Shonagon

Sei Shōnagon was a Japanese author, poet, and lady of the court who served the Empress Teishi during the middle Heian period, around 1000 A.D. What little is known of her comes from her writings. The daughter and granddaughter of poets, Sei Shōnagon is best remembered for her “Pillow-Book”, a collection of essays, anecdotes, poems, and descriptive passages recorded around the end of the first millennium and the beginning of the second. A largely unrelated group of writings the work can be roughly categorized into three parts. In the first part, the reader will find narratives concerning court life; in the second part, Sei Shōnagon presents her opinions on various matters; and in the third part, there is a series of famous lists. A work that is hard to categorize, the “Pillow-Book” remains an important first-hand account of Japanese court life in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Presented here is the abbreviated translation of Arthur Waley, first published in 1928.