Leaves of Words Blooming in the Midst of Light and Shadow: Sei Shonagon and the World of "The Pillow Book" (mid-Heian period)

Leaves of Words Blooming in the Midst of Light and Shadow: Sei Shonagon and the World of "The Pillow Book" (mid-Heian period)

The time is the transition from Tenryaku to Kankoh. From 970 to 1000 A.D., the Fujiwara clan had been in the ascendant of the regency government, and the capital was enjoying unprecedented prosperity. But it was also a time of quiet warfare, with the whirlwind of violent power swirling ceaselessly. In this Heian period, a brilliant flower bloomed in the capital: Sei Shonagon.

Born the daughter of Kiyohara Motosuke, she was a well-educated woman well versed in Chinese poetry and waka. Women at that time wrote mainly in kana, but Sei Shonagon could also read and write in Chinese, and possessed intelligence and wit comparable to male officials. Perhaps in recognition of her literary talent, she became the wife of Fujiwara no Sadako, the middle palace of Emperor Ichijo, and eventually began to record her life at court in vivid prose.

This was the Pillow Book, an essay that is still read a thousand years later.

The work consists of three general types of essays: "categorized chapters," "diary-like chapters," which describe daily events, and "essay-like chapters," which describe the movements and emotions of the heart.

The first section, "Haru wa akebono" (The Dawn of Spring), is a famous sentence that everyone has heard before. This sentence, which describes the dawn of spring, summer nights, autumn dusk, and early winter mornings with all five senses, is a gem of a poem that combines the transitions of nature and sensitivity.

Her eyes were also keenly attuned to loveliness. In "Tsukishiki mono" (the eighth stanza), she finds love in the small tremors of life, such as the movements of a small child or the gestures of a sparrowhawk. On the other hand, in "Gratitude" (Dan. 27) and "Nukiki mono" (Dan. 156), she lambastes the unreasonableness of the world and the ridiculousness of people, mixing sarcasm and humor.

Particularly impressive is "Snow on the Korobo Peak" (Dan. 7). One snowy day, as soon as Chugu Sadako asks what the snow at Koromine looks like as described in a Chinese poem, Sei Shonagon immediately opens a shoji (sliding door) to show her. This instantaneous demonstration of knowledge, improvisation, and sensitivity to beauty is an act that symbolizes her brilliance and her intellectual bond with her lord Teiko.

However, behind this glory lies the image of Sadako, who is gradually driven into a corner by a political dispute with Fujiwara no Michinaga. After the death of her father, Michitaka, Sadako's family fell into disgrace, and she eventually passed away at a young age. In the Pillow Book, the sorrow of Sadako's downfall is not expressed in the foreground, but her gaze at the transience of time flows calmly through chapters such as "The feeling of the dawn and dusk" (Dan. 252) and "If I were to liken this world to the world" (Dan. 275).

In chapters such as "Daishin Seisho comes" (Dan. 249) and "Dono to no Oshikatsukite" (Dan. 193), the human characters of the court are vividly depicted, inviting readers back to a time a thousand years ago when the Imperial Palace was called "Shikin-den. The story is written in a flexible style, depicting wives in a hurry to put on their makeup and the coldness of the courtier's gaze toward male officials who lacked education.

Since Sei Shonagon left the court after Sadako's death, there is no clear record of her life. However, each word she wrote was a jewel of words that emerged from the light and shadows of the Heian period.

For example, in "Sasamajimono" (the 137th paragraph), she invites laughter with a series of out-of-place scenes, such as a dog barking in the shadows at night and an emaciated child at New Year's, but somehow the harshness of reality is transparent.

This shows that even in the elegant court, a little anger and prayer were still alive and well. The Pillow Book is not just an ornament. What is engraved in it is the gaze of a woman living a thousand years.