The Pillow-Book of Sei Shonagon

The Pillow-Book of Sei Shonagon - Paperback

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$11.50
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The Pillow-Book of Sei Shonagon
  • The Pillow-Book of Sei Shonagon
The Pillow-Book of Sei Shonagon - Paperback

The Pillow-Book of Sei Shonagon - Paperback

by Sei Shonagon
$11.50
$11.50

Book Overview

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.
ISBN9781420982732
Author Sei Shonagon
PublisherDigireads.com
GenreLiterature
FormatPaperback
PublishedMay 2025
LanguageENG- English
Pages66
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

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Literary Collections Nonfiction

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More by Sei Shonagon

The Pillow-Book of Sei Shonagon

The Pillow-Book of Sei Shonagon - Paperback

The Pillow-Book of Sei Shonagon - Paperback

By Sei Shonagon

About Sei Shonagon

Sei Shonagon was born approximately a thousand years ago (965 is a likely date) and served as lady-in-waiting at the Court of the Japanese Empress during the last decade of the tenth century. Her father was a provincial official, but is best known as a poet and a scholar. It is possible, though unlikely, that Shonagon was briefly married to a government official, by whom she may have had a son. Her life after her Court service came to an end is totally obscure. There is a tradition that she died in lonely poverty: but this is probably an invention of moralists who were shocked by her promiscuity and thought she deserved retribution. Our knowledge of Shonagon's life and character rests almost exclusively on the Pillow Book itself.

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