Sei Sh¯onagon was born to a father named Motosuke,
a member of the Kiyo-wara family, who
worked as an imperial official and was also a
scholar and poet. Some historians believe that Sei
Sh¯onagon was briefly married to a government official
named Tachibana no Norimitsu, with whom
she had a son. It is known for certain that she
served as a lady-in-waiting to Empress Sadako
until Sadako’s death in 1000.After her service with
the empress ends, nothing more about Sei’s life is
known, including the date of her death. Tradition
has it that she died lonely and in poverty, but this
may be the invention of those who disapproved of
her worldly ways.
Her name may be a title obscuring her given
name: Sh¯onagon means “minor counselor,” and Sei
refers to her father’s family. However, her contemporary
and fellow court writer MURASAKI SHIKIBU,
who wrote The Tale of Genji, mentions Sei Sh¯onagon
in the context of “those Chinese writings of
hers that she so presumptuously scatters about the
place . . . full of imperfections.”Murasaki calls her
a “gifted woman, to be sure,” but utterly frivolous.
This scorn perhaps reflects a competitive spirit
prevalent at a court where Sei’s intelligence, wit,
sensitivity to beauty, observation of detail, and occasional
intolerance and callousness were perceived
as a threat.
What is known about Sei Sh¯onagon’s life survives
in the Makura no Soshi, or Pillow Book, which
she began writing in 994 and continued for more
than 10 years. The Pillow Book is a miscellany of
lists, vignettes, descriptions, thoughts, and poems.
None of the 300 selections in the book are longer
than a few pages, and they are arranged in no obvious
order. During the Heian period in Japan,
both upper-class men and women were educated
and literate, and many frequently recorded
thoughts and informal notes that they kept in their
sleeping quarters, possibly in the drawers of their
wooden pillows. Sei’s book makes reference to the
works of at least a dozen other authors, only one of
whose manuscripts survives.
Sei is remembered as a snob for the occasional
derision she shows to those of the lower classes; she
is equally critical of people with poor grooming
habits or unattractive appearances. Nonetheless,
the minute detail, rhythmic language, and frank
tone of her work provide a varied and engaging
look at court life in imperial Japan.
Sei’s Pillow Book established a tradition of zuihitsu,
or “random notes,” which continues to the
present day and represents some of the most valuable
works of Japanese literature. Despite Murasaki
Shikibu’s criticism Sei’s language is pure Heian
Japanese, with very few Chinese words or inflections.
Historians appreciate the wealth of information
her work provides about life in Japan over
1,000 years ago.
In her writing, Sei Sh¯onagon’s approach to life is
primarily aesthetic. Her frequent use of the words
okashi (charming) or medetashi (splendid) not
only serve as descriptive terms but also create a
repetitive, incantatory writing style that can prove
difficult to translate into modern English. Sei evaluates
things by the feelings they provoke and
thoughtfully analyzes the qualities of both ugliness
and beauty. Among her many lists are those things
that give a feeling of heat (such as a very fat, hairy
person or a coppersmith at work) and a list of unpleasant
things (including people who show off
their children, mosquitoes who appear just when
one is about to sleep, and having a story interrupted
by someone who has just entered the
room).
Other sections of the Pillow Book recount
events at court or offer vignettes of Sei’s life and
observations, showing her keen awareness of the
transient nature of life. Although not sexually explicit,
the Pillow Book also speaks candidly of
Sei’s—and others’s—love affairs.
The original manuscript of the Pillow Book disappeared,
and the earliest manuscript that survives
was compiled 500 years after the period during
which Sei Sh¯onagon wrote. The work was popular
enough to be recopied many times, but copyists
frequently made changes that have led to several
different existing versions, many with the sections
arranged in varying order. The Pillow Book was issued
as a printed book in the 17th century and has
become a revered classic in Japan.
English Versions of a Work by Sei Sho¯ nagon
The Pillow Book of Sei Sh¯onagon. Translated by Ivan
Morris. New York: Columbia University Press,
1991.
The Pillow Book of Sei Sh¯onagon. Translated by Arthur
Waley. New York: HarperCollins, 1979.
A Work about Sei Sho¯ nagon
Blensdorf, Jan. My Name is Sei Sh¯onagon. New York:
Overlook Press, 2003.