The Pillow Book seems like her personal journal where her observations and notes are recorded. There is no certain format like chapters in The Pillow Book. Therefore it really looks like her personal diary reflecting her own thoughts and opinions. I believe the title of the book also demonstrates that is is her personal diary. The word “pillow” makes me imagine the scene where she writes her diary before sleep and puts it next to her pillow after writing. As Sei Shōnagon served the Empress, the book is written with various topics including her experiences in the court. Sei Shōnagon starts the book by describing the four seasons. She describes each season with details that are enough to make me imagine. She finds the most beautiful about each season and for instance, she finds the dawn most beautiful in spring. I believe she has delicate observations about the nature as she describes each season with specific features. I believe she was able to observe the beauty of the nature as she resided in the palace as a lady in waiting. I also think she considerably lived in a high society being very near the Emperor. Therefore, her diary entities might contain more upper class story.
There is one section where she telling about the dog named Okinamaro. Okinamaro bites the cat named Myobu living in the palace with the Emperor. Therefore, Okinamaro therefore is abandoned and disappeared. However, Okinamaro later appears in the palace but avoids revealing himself to the people. Okinamaro trembles and weeps after being revealed. People find interesting by how a dog can show such emotions like human beings. The contrast between the cat and dog is very vivid, the cat being praised while the dog expelled with beating. The introduction explains that the cast story is often served as an allegory for Korechika’s exile highlighting cruel court politics. However, I cannot quite understand how the story can be related to the exile and politics.
Questions
- Why do you think the title of the book is The Pillow Book?
- What do you think about the Emperor’s Cat story? Do you think there is any meaning or lesson from that story?
I agree with the idea that this could be a personal journal, but I also wondered if this could be a collection of short stories, or scenarios. I almost do see chapters, even. Maybe the numbers prior to the start of a new text indicate a new “chapter” or memory. It goes from “refined and elegant things” to “insects,” which leads me to believe that this could be portions of different chapters in a larger collection of thoughts.
I agree that The Pillow Book is a journal containing a collection of personal everyday thoughts. Something I found interesting about Sei Shonagon’s entries is that they are very well-written, her poems are similar to those within the Kokinshu, and she is clearly a well-educated woman. After further research, I found that in order to become a lady-in-waiting to the Empress, one of the requirements for these women was to be able to recite each and every poem in the Kokinshu. This is very similar to the Civil Service Examination that was required for entry into a job position within the Chinese palace. I think that because Sei Shonagon was well-versed in the Kokinshu, this knowledge transferred over to her work and her ability to craft such interesting poems and entries. She also seems to be a strongly opinionated woman who enjoyed the aesthetic values and pleasantries of life within the court.
I also thought this was a personal diary of Sei Shonagon. I thought why the title of this was called the pillow book and I came to a guessing that Sei would write in this journal daily before she would go to sleep. She would write whatever thoughts would be on her mind and then put if under her pillow after when she goes to sleep. I also agree with Amanda that Sei was an intelligent opinionated person. She has a beauty of expressing herself and describing things like the seasons.
I think the reason why it is titled as Pillow Book is that it is journal of a lady in waiting. It might refer that the author, Kokinshu, recorded the journal right before going to bed while it is not true and she wrote this literature after she left the palace. She might inferred that this literature or journal is about trivial stories one can read lightly before going bed as fairy tales.
I was surprised with the Emperor’s cat story. A cat and a dog are treated so differently. A cat is usually holy animal and a dog is usually lower class animal in the ancient Japan and this story shows the culture.