The Pillow Book
An aspect that makes Shōnagon’s writing in "The Pillow Book" different from other written diaries of her period and even modern day journals is the fact that she did not invest her time in soul-searching, nor was she searching for the attention or opinions of readers, simply because she did not invest in her writing for others, but only for herself. Shōnagon’s focus in "The Pillow Book" is based on the likes and dislikes of the world, what she is interested in personally, and the delightedness of the world that she viewed and lived in. In the Kyoto Journal article, McKinney explains that Shōnagon is “engaging you [the reader], face to face across the centuries, assuming your familiarity with her and her world, compelling you to nod and smile.” The selections in this anthology are meant to showcase the variety of Shonagon’s musings and anecdotes (457 “The Pillow Book”). “The Pillow Book” is a collection of anecdotes, lists, and assorted writings that is one of the best sources of information concerning the court society of the tenth century and is considered an influential landmark in the history of Japanese Literature (Penny and Matthew). “The Pillow Book” is written entirely in Japanese. During the late tenth and early eleventh centuries, Japanese men typically wrote in Chinese, using characters, while Japanese women wrote exclusively in their native tongue, using hiragana, a syllabary derived from Chinese characters (Penney and Matthew). “The Pillow Book” is a part of a large tradition of women’s literature. The simplicity and charm of Shonagon’s style has been used as an example of the finest Japanese prose to this day. Sei Shonagon has been described as arrogant and confrontational by many readers, according to Penney and Matthew. Though they describe her as freely expressing her feelings with sharp wit. “The Pillow Book” influenced a genre of Japanese writings established as zuihitsu (assorted writing). Zuihitsu, many writings share Sei Shonagon’s passion to capture the quintessence of day-to-day life, it is popular in the Japanese publishing industry.