Sei Shōnagon

Sei Shōnagon was a Japanese poet, diarist, and courtier to Empress Consort Teishi of the Heian period (794–1185). Shōnagon wrote The Pillow Book (枕草子, Makura no sōshi), the earliest known text written in the zuihitsu genre. The Pillow Book is a collection of Shōnagon’s reminiscences, observations, and musings on courtly life, personal thoughts, anecdotes, and poetry. Because of its original prose style, The Pillow Book is considered a masterpiece of classical Japanese literature and a detailed source on Japanese court life during the Heian period.

Shōnagon also wrote short poems referred to as waka, now known by the term tanka. Shōnagon’s waka were included in Goshūishū (approximately translated as Later Collection of Gleanings) compiled by Fujiwara no Michitoshi in 1086 at the behest of Emperor Shirakawa. One of Shōnagon’s waka is included in Ogura Hyakunin Isshu (approximately translated as One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets) compiled by Fujiwara no Teika and published as an illustrated book in 1680. A popular English translation of this anthology is One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each: A Treasury of Classical Japanese Verse (Penguin Classics, 2018) by Peter MacMillan.

English translations of The Pillow Book include The Pillow-Book of Sei Shōnagon, translated by Arthur Waley (George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1957); The Pillow-Book of Sei Shōnagon, translated and edited by Ivan Morris (Columbia University Press, 1991); and The Pillow Book, translated by Meredith McKinney (Penguin Classics, 2007).