Essay
The Pillow Book
枕草子
Sei Shōnagon · 1002
Synopsis
A lady in the service of the empress records, as her moods take her, what she observes at court: essays, anecdotes, poems and descriptions with no tight connection between them. The book contains more than a hundred and sixty lists, such as that of things that touch the heart; Britannica also cites annoying things and those that distract from boredom. There are also memories told with vivacity, views of nature and daily life, and judgments, sometimes admiring, sometimes biting, of the people around her.
Context
The text, completed around 1002, had at first been held to be private, until a visitor carried off a first version around 996. It then circulated in manuscript copies for centuries before being printed in the seventeenth century; the order of the passages varied from one copyist to another, and four families of manuscripts are known. It marked the genre of writings “following the brush”. Ivan Morris gave the first complete English translation in 1967, and André Beaujard the French version as early as 1934.
Who it is for
Short fragments, to be read in any order, for those who want to enter the life of a Japanese court at the beginning of the eleventh century.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as a major testimony on court society and as a model of Japanese prose, it inspired a film in 1996.
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