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    Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon: The Diary of a Courtesan in Tenth Century Japan
    Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon: The Diary of a Courtesan in Tenth Century Japan
    Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon: The Diary of a Courtesan in Tenth Century Japan
    Ebook149 pages1 hour

    Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon: The Diary of a Courtesan in Tenth Century Japan

    By Arthur Waley and Dennis Washburn

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Take a firsthand journey into a time, society and world full of intrigue.

    In the tenth century, Japan stood physically and culturally isolated from the rest of the world. Sei Shonagon--a young courtesan of the Heian period--kept a diary, which provides a highly personal account of the intrigues, dalliances, quirks, and habits of Japan's late tenth-century elite.

    She was a contemporary and acquaintance of the well-known courtesan Murasaki Shikibu, author of the Japanese masterpiece The Tale of Genji. A perfect companion to that work, The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon brings an added dimension to Murasaki's timeless and seminal novel and further illuminates Japanese court life in all its ritualistic glory.

    Through his elegant and readable abridged translation, Arthur Waley perfectly conveys Sei Shonagon's girlish temperament and quirky personality. In a place and time where poetry was as important as knowledge and beauty was highly revered, Sei Shonagon's private writings offer a charming, intimate glimpse into a world of innocence and pale beauty.

    A new introduction by respected Japanese literary scholar Dennis Washburn provides historical insight into Japanese culture, Sei Shonagon's world, and Waley's translation.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTuttle Publishing
    Release dateJul 12, 2011
    ISBN9781462900886
    Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon: The Diary of a Courtesan in Tenth Century Japan

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    3.5/5

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    • 3/5
      Stanca Cionca should have put the author name in Romanian. 'Om bun si cinstit'.
    • 3/5
      Though Sei Shōnagon, author of "The Pillow Book" ("Makura no sōshi") is often lauded for her wit and command of the intricacies of the many different forms of communication-via-poetry in 10th century Japan, this does not necessarily "translate well" for Readers of the 21st Century. Shōnagon often "comes off" more as brittle and bitchy than alluring and witty. (A 10th Century Japanese Courtesan "Mean Girl" with a talent for word play, and a gimlet eye for every subtlety of fashion and behaviour.)

      This may have made her a perfect example of the bitterly competitive world (all disguised beneath the elaborate panoply) in which she lived, but it's difficult to "like" Shōnagon herself. The Reader gets the feeling that may have been the same in Shōnagon's time as well. Her superiors praised her talent, she was popular and usually managed to be with/"on the side of" the "in crowd", so, undoubtedly, she was envied. That didn't mean she was genuinely liked, nor trusted (as a friend). As much as Shōnagon prided herself on her prodigious memory (crucial for communication heavily steeped in both ancient and then-contemporary poetry, in both Chinese and Japanese) and rapier-sharp repartée, the Reader also gets the feeling that, her two extremes of self-identification aside (coy, bashful ingénue and Dragon Lady of Poetry), she actually did desperately wish to be liked and admired, genuinely, in the most friendly way, in a manner she could "relax" and trust - and when she of all people knew would be exceedingly rare in her time and in just about any time in a Royal Court. Even Emperors and Empresses were never "safe" (actually or allegorically) in their own Courts, which seethed with competition and rivalries of all types from within and from outside. Past all the pretty words (the poetry), the lovely silks, beautiful jewelry and accessories, the flowery etiquette, the excitement of affairs, the "glories of Court life", it was not a gentle world in which Shōnagon lived.

      The Author details how Shōnagon pretty much "set up" the "discovery" of her allegedly-private "pillow book", and then played, by turns, embarrassed, coy, outraged (and secretly pleased by all the effects). If her contemporaries "bought" that Shōnagon's "Pillow Book" was her truly unvarnished, private, "true thoughts", they must have been an easy sell. To this Reader, the "Pillow Book" is just one more elaborate, expertly - and quite purposeful - "mask" behind which whatever was the "real" Shōnagon hid, another polished artifice she masterfully employed. This Reader could never really decide who, or what, the "real" Shōnagon was. Perhaps that's exactly what "the real Shōnagon" wanted, but it's a real balancing act - to be caustically witty and yet also wanting to be genuinely liked, as one example - to have such diametric desires, but it can fall under the idea of mystique, which Shōnagon probably would have liked very much.

      1 person found this helpful

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