The Pillow Book

In Chapters 159 and 160, Shonagon lists “things that are near yet far” and “things that are far yet near” (163). Then, she lists wells, plains, court nobles, nobles, acting provincial governors, commissioners, priests, ladies, and sixth-rank chamberlains in succession. The last “is not one that anyone should aspire to,” for men in such a position become “depressingly staid and unambitious” (163). Upon reaching a certain rank, such men will find their own small houses and take great pride in them, but Shonagon feels they should instead live with a relative until reaching a higher position and finding a nicer home. 

In Chapter 170, Shonagon describes the “boringly unromantic” place where a lady lives alone (164). If she leaves the land unkempt, it “is a truly forlorn and moving sight,” but after it is “repaired and smartened up,” it loses its romance (164).

A lady who serves at court, Shonagon feels, “should ideally have both parents” living at her home (164). She imagines a visitor from court arriving, and the servants and family members wondering why he stays into the night, worrying about leaving the gate open.

“The very fact that he’s paying a visit,” Shonagon comments, “must mean that he cares for you”; and, if he feels strongly, he “will stay on till the dawn, ignoring all your urgings that he should go” (165). Such conduct is difficult enough to manage at the home of one’s parents; if one does not live with one’s own parents, Shonagon explains, one must “worry terribly about what they think of [the man’s] visit” (165). Such visits can be nice if hosts are not worried about gates and everyone can enjoy the outside company.

Shonagon retells the story of a man who visits “Lady Someone” in the ninth month (166). After he leaves, he creeps back to watch her “in secret” until he watches her hair glow “like a candle, borrowing added light from the moonlight” (166).

She then describes scenes on snowy nights when groups of friends talk “of moving and entertaining matters” (167). An eloquent, talkative man might arrive and keep the group up until dawn, leaving the group thinking “how much more delightful it was to have him there with them” (167).

One snowfall, during Emperor Murakami’s reign, the Emperor heaps fresh snow into a bowl, places a flowering plum in the bowl, and asks a Lady Chamberlain to write a poem about it. The Emperor praises the Lady for reciting a Chinese poem, because “it’s far more difficult to say something that is so precisely apt for the occasion” than simply “producing a poem” (168).

In Chapter 176, Shonagon tells of when she “first went into court service” and “everything seemed to overwhelm [her] with confusion and embarrassment” (168). The Empress and others scolded her for her shyness. When a Grand Counsellor visited the Empress, she “listened in awe to their elegant exchange” and “marvelled that there must surely be nothing more wonderful” (170). The visitor peeked behind the curtain, where Shonagon stood, and “proceeded to talk to” her (171). Sweating and embarrassed, she felt her “shameful impudence and folly in daring to presume [she] could serve at court” (171). As more visitors arrived, she writes she “felt as if [she] was witnessing angels or creatures descended to earth from some higher plane” (172).

In the next chapter, Shonagon lists “people who feel smug” (173). Achieving new ranks can bring on smugness. As Shonagon explains in the immediately following chapter, “nothing is more splendid than rank” (174). Rising through ranks can change a person, especially a young man.

Chapter 179 is a list of “awe-inspiring things,” in which Shonagon speaks of men whose wives are nurses (175). 

In Chapter 180, Shonagon lists illnesses. She is captivated by the sight of a beautiful young person in the grip of sickness.

The next chapter revisits a familiar theme: the man returning home from a tryst. This vision is “delightful” for Shonagon, who admires “how tenderly he bends to the task of writing” a love note upon his return home (176). He carefully administers the note to a trusted aide, and then he begins to read and recite sutras.

When one receives such a note, on a “fiercely hot day,” one can “sense how hot [the man] must have felt as he wrote it” (177). It is easy to forget the heat of the day when one is filled with these thoughts. Shonagon continues creating scenes of women reclining in beautiful rooms, while girls and gentlewomen look on, or scenes of men and women relaxing together.

Shonagon also reflects on the delights of hearing “blinds raised to enjoy the dawn moon” and the contrasting annoyance of hearing hooves but discovering a “perfectly boring person going by” (178).

In Chapter 185, Shonagon expresses her disillusionment with “a man or a woman who turns out to use words vulgarly” (179). She wishes that people would consider the nature of the word and its vulgarity, rather than just projecting it out. Mispronunciations, too, are the subject of her scorn.

Other displeasing habits catch her attention here: no man, for example, should eat with a gentlewoman. Even if the man is drunk, “it wouldn’t matter to [her] if he decided [she] was heartless and unfeeling,” she still would not feed him (179).

In Chapter 187, Shonagon describes different varieties of winds. Surprising weather and moments of dramatic wind excite Shonagon. Settings that enhance windy effects, like “places that have a garden full of trees,” are especially “marvellous” for these effects (180). The day after a typhoon, she explains in the next chapter, is especially beautiful for this reason.

This idea of intrigue and elegance in the ordinary excites Shonagon. Surprises, like well arranged braziers or the sound of pots knocking against one another, can be intriguing in this way. “A person who stays up late,” she says, “is always elegantly intriguing” (182). She continues with a series of anecdotes about people whose elegant appearance and behavior, often unintentional, appeals to her. 

Shonagon lists islands, beaches, bays, woods, temples, sutras, buddhas, Chinese writings, and tales. She offers commentary on some of the tales, such as Yielding up the Country and The Envious Captain.