The pillow-book of Sei Shōnagon

[1] Makura no Sōshi, this being a name given at the time to notebooks in which stray impressions were recorded.

[2] Since this was written there has appeared Les Notes de l’Oreiller, by K. Matsuo and Steinilber-Oberlin, containing extracts which amount, like mine, to about a quarter of the original. My selection was, however, made from a very different point of view and coincides with theirs only to the extent of a few pages. The two books are therefore complementary.

[3] Often referred to as Kyōto, i.e. the Capital.

[4] E.g. Taira no Koremochi and Minamoto no Mitsunaka. But the point should not be pressed; for Eshin was also patronized by the Emperor’s mother, who was a Fujiwara.

[5] See A Wreath of Cloud (Genji, part iii), p. 22.

[6] In Court Ladies of Old Japan (Constable, 1921) two diaries of the period, as well as that of Murasaki, are translated. Of these, the ‘Diary of Izumi Shikibu’ is not a genuine document, but a romance written round the well-known story of Izumi’s love-affairs; the Sarashina Diary is a much worked-up and highly literary production. For the Kagerō nikki, ‘Gossamer Diary,’ see introduction to The Tale of Genji, vol. ii.

[7] Finished in a.d. 720. Translated by W. G. Aston.

[8] He also organized the building of the great harbour at Uozumi.

[9] Only 26 pages long. It is contained in the T’ang Tai Ts’ung Shu, or Minor Works of the T’ang dynasty.

[10] Buddhists being forbidden to kill.

[11] Who is so unhappy about his appearance that he hides all day and only comes out at night.

[12] For Buddhist observances.

[13] In allusion to the poem: ‘In this mountain village, after the snow-storm, no roads are left; and my heart is full of pity for him who I know will come.’ Taira no Kanemori, the author of this poem, had died a few months before.

[14] Another Fujiwara grandee, a distant cousin of their host.

[15] Twenty-one of them were led in procession.

[16] The first poem that children learned to write.

[17] Probably in 984.

[18] Of the year 995.

[19] Instead of walking to the Eastern Gate, the only one which the Palace staff was supposed to use.

[20] The Kamo festival, in the fourth month.

[21] The Empress’s maternal uncle. The Empress’s mother came of a comparatively humble family.

[22] Fujiwara no Kiminobu, aged eighteen; cousin of the Empress.

[23] A soft, high-crowned cap.

[24] The bulls that drew it had to be unyoked at the Palace gate.

[25] See The Sacred Tree, p. 89.

[26] Then a child of four. His mother was Kane-iye’s daughter.

[27] Second daughter of Kane-iye’s brother, Tamemitsu.

[28] The year of the cuckoo-expedition that Shōnagon has just described.

[29] See above, p. 49.

[30] In allusion to the poem: ‘Like a river that has dived into the earth, but is flowing all the while; so my heart, long silent, leaps up replenished in its love.’

Moreover, the azalea signifies silence because it is of the shade of yellow known as kuchinashi and kuchi nashi means ‘mouthless,’ ‘dumb.’

[31] 998, third month. Yukinari was then twenty-six. He died at the age of fifty-five, in 1027. Often called Kōzei.

[32] This gentleman was evidently carrying on an affair with Ben no Naishi. There was a Clerk of the Left and a Clerk of the Right. The person referred to is either Minamoto no Yoriyoshi or Fujiwara no Tadasuke.

[33] A few years later Yukinari became known as the greatest calligrapher of his time.

[34] For the Empress.

[35] To the Analects of Confucius: ‘If you are wrong, don’t stand on ceremony with yourself, but change!’ Yukinari thinks that Shōnagon is inviting him to take liberties with her.

[36] Brother-in-law of Murasaki, authoress of The Tale of Genji.

[37] Presumably Noritaka was closely related to Shōnagon’s companion.

[38] The ladies were dressing in an alcove curtained off from the rest of the room.

[39] Minamoto no Tsunefusa, 969–1023.

[40] Minamoto no Narimasa. This gentleman, together with Tsunefusa and Tadanobu, reappears in Murasaki’s Diary. The three make music together at the time of the Empress Akiko’s confinement (a.d. 1008); ‘but not a regular concert, for fear of disturbing the Prime Minister.’

[41] In early Japanese poetry ‘sister’ means beloved. But at this period it indicated a platonic relationship and is often contrasted with words implying greater intimacy. Tachibana no Norimitsu was famous for his courage; he once coped single-handed with a band of robbers that had entered Tadanobu’s house.

[42] Meaning ‘If you are tempted to speak, stuff cloth in your mouth as you did last time.’

[43] An acrostic. There is a series of ingenious puns; for example, me-kuwase = ‘to hint with a wink,’ but also ‘to cause to eat rag.’

[44] Shōnagon’s father died before she went to Court.

[45] The adverb he uses (raisō to), evidently a very emphatic one, was a slang expression of the time, the exact meaning of which is uncertain.

[46] Out to the front of the house.

[47] A courtier not admitted on to the Imperial dais.

[48] Mikasa means ‘Three Umbrellas.’

[49] A member of the Minamoto clan; afterwards Governor of Awa.

[50] For ‘five limbs’ the speaker uses a pedantic Chinese expression, corresponding to a Latinism in English.

[51] When the New Year appointments were announced.

[52] Cloth soaked in sticky oil.

[53] As opposed to the barrack roll-calls.

[54] The ladies-in-waiting’s quarters in the Empress’s apartments, as opposed to their rooms in the less prominent parts of the Palace.

[55] A movable partition which concealed the washing-place. On the inside was painted a cat; on the outside, sparrows and bamboos.

[56] Summer, 998 (?).

[57] In 996.

[58] The Minami no In, the palace of Michitaka, the Empress’s father. This episode must have taken place in the twelfth month of 992.

[59] I.e. two hours, the Japanese hour being twice ours.

[60] Reading hiraginu.

[61] Lespedeza bicolor.

[62] Eularia japonica.

[63] Which would be in Chinese, as these magicians worked according to a method deduced from the Chinese Book of Changes.

[64] Minamoto no Narinobu (born a.d. 972) was a son of Prince Okihira (953–1041).

[65] Temple of Kwannon, near Kyōto.

[66] Translated by de la Vallée Poussin, Geuthner, 1923 seq.; a treatise by Vasubandhu, expounding the philosophy of the Sarvāstivādins.

[67] Slipped on over one’s outdoor boots, like the slippers worn in a mosque.

[68] Literally, the low rails in front of the altar.

[69] The priests were employed to make dedications on behalf of their patrons.

[70] Used in the decoration of Buddhist altars.

[71] Allusion not identified. Must be to a poem such as: ‘In this mountain temple at evening when the bell sounds, to know that it is ringing for our good, how comforting the thought!’

[72] When the great scholar Moto-ori visited this temple in 1772 he was startled by the sudden noise of the conch-horn, blown at the hour of the Serpent (9 a.m.). At once there came into his mind this passage from The Pillow-Book and ‘the figure of Shōnagon seemed to rise up before me’ (Sugagasa Nikki, third month, seventh day). It is in this same temple that, in The Tale of Genji, Murasaki lays the scene of the meeting between Ukon and the long-lost Tamakatsura. The local people (Moto-ori tells us) had no idea that the characters in Genji were imaginary, and pointed out to him ‘the tomb of Tamakatsura.’

[73] A note folded up and twisted into an elaborate knot. In this case it would contain instructions for special services or prayers.

[74] A kyōge or ritual for ‘instruction and transformation’ of evil influences.

[75] The early service, at about 3 a.m.

[76] I.e. Kwannon, whose sūtra forms the 25th chapter of the Hokkekyō.

[77] A Chinese who became so completely absorbed in the Tao Tē Ching of Lao Tzu that he sat reading it on the edge of a river until (according to one version of the story) the spring floods carried him away.

[78] Of the Scriptures.

[79] Yoroshi, ‘good,’ is used by Shōnagon just as we use the word ‘good’ in such expressions as ‘a good while ago,’ etc. Aston (p. 116) did not understand this and completely mistranslates the sentence.

[80] It was the anniversary of his father’s death, or the like, and he should have remained strictly closeted at home. The ‘taboo-ticket,’ mono-imi no fuda, was worn as a sign that he must not be disturbed.

[81] The Empress’s brother, Ryū-en.

[82] A creature that squeezes its way into the shells of other fish.

[83] There is here a series of puns too complicated for explanation.

[84] What we should call bobbed hair; standing out fan-wise behind, and worn about six inches long over the temples.

[85] Like our Venetian blinds.

[86] Bringing messages from home, or the like.

[87] The examinations for officers of the Sixth Rank and under.

[88] I.e. Confucius. This is the ceremony in honour of Confucius and his disciples. In Chinese, Shih-tien. I quote this passage because it illustrates the extraordinary vagueness of the women concerning purely male activities.

[89] I.e. dream-interpreter. Modern experts have seldom been known to take this reassuring view.

[90] Light purple, lined with clear blue.

[91] Partitions made of thin pieces of wood, laid trellis-wise.

[92] The incantations of the priest cause the spirit which is possessing the sick person to pass into the medium, who, being young and healthy, easily throws it off.

[93] Not to be confused with Minamoto no Narimasa, mentioned above.

[94] The story of Yü Kung, who rebuilt his gate because of a conviction that his son Ting-kuo would rise to greatness, is told in the little handbook of improving anecdotes to which I refer below (p. 151). Shōnagon is laughing at the fact that Narimasa should so easily have been impressed.

[95] Shōnagon was now about thirty-four; Narimasa was fifty.

[96] He uses an affected pronunciation.

[97] Died in 1018, at the age of nineteen.

[98] See above, p. 65.

[99] There is a good copy of this at the British Museum.

[100] The intimacy would, of course, be secret. Shōnagon’s embarrassment would proceed solely from her own conscience.

[101] Except in the case of uta, the small poems of thirty-one syllables.

[102] Higuchi Ichyō (1872–1896).

[103] Preserved only in the so-called ‘manuscript with the side-commentary.’