Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Pillow Book, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Court Life vs. Common Life
Poetry and Social Relationships
Aesthetic Beauty, Delight, and Cultural Tradition
Romance and Official Duty
Summary
Analysis
Sei thinks that it’s very awkward and embarrassing when one runs out to greet a visitor, only to discover that the person has come to see someone else. It’s also embarrassing to say something rude about someone, only to have a child repeat one’s words in front of that person. Additionally, Sei thinks it’s embarrassing when someone tells a sad story, but try as one might, one is unable to cry.
Sei finds embarrassment in moments when expectations are disappointed, when one’s private thoughts are unexpectedly disclosed, or when one can’t live up to the emotions expected at the moment. In this way, it seems that maintaining her refined appearance as a gentlewoman is of the utmost importance to Sei.
Themes
This reminds Sei of a time when the Emperor’s carriage stopped in front of the Dowager Empress’s viewing stand during an imperial procession, and his greeting was so moving that Sei cried until her makeup came off. The whole thing made her want to “jump with delight” as she imagined the Dowager Empress’s feelings about her son.
Courtiers’ lives revolved around the imperial family, and seeing their loving interactions was deeply moving and delightful even for someone like Sei, who sometimes comes across as detached and cynical about relationships.
Themes
Sei thinks it’s beautiful when water drops hang on garden plants and the morning sun shines on them, or when rain clings to spiderwebs. She also loves it when a branch of the bush clover suddenly springs free of its weight of morning dew. “I also find it fascinating,” she adds, “that things like this can utterly fail to delight others.”
Sei finds the quality of okashi, or delight, so self-evident that it’s surprising and even “fascinating” when others don’t share her finely-developed appreciation for small instances of beauty.
Themes
One day Sei receives a wrapped gift, by way of a groundsman, from Secretary Controller Yukinari. It contains two heitan cakes and a formal letter of presentation. The letter jokingly addresses Sei as though she were a Junior Counsellor. Sei consults with an official in charge of court ceremonies about the proper protocol for her response. She ends up sending a punning reply back (playing on heitan, which is similar to reitan, the word for “rude”), whereupon Yukinari appears and praises Sei’s cleverness—she didn’t send a “half-baked poem” or show off, but she actually took the time to send a brilliant reply.
Yukinari is a senior courtier with whom Sei enjoys a warm and flirtatious friendship. Heitan are filled rice cakes which were presented to nobles and courtiers on special occasions. Sei shows concern about protocol because she wants to prolong the joke—replying as if she’s really a Junior Counselor. Her pun ends up delighting Yukinari even more than a hasty poem would have.
Themes
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One night, the court ladies idly discuss and debate the odd names of various ceremonial items and articles of clothing. Finally Sei tells them to knock it off and go to sleep, when suddenly a nearby night-priest startles them by interjecting, “No […] Do keep talking all night, ladies.”
Perhaps Sei recorded this moment because it confirms her earlier wry hunch about night-priests—namely, that they enjoy eavesdropping on women’s conversations.
Themes
After the Regent’s death, the Empress has religious services performed on behalf of his soul every month. Great crowds attend, and the preacher, Seihan, draws tears even from the young people with his sermons. Afterward, Tadanobu recites an especially moving Chinese poem. Tadanobu often teases Sei about their relationship—why can’t they become closer? Sei teases back that if they became lovers, she could no longer praise him in public—she hates it when people do that.
Tadanobu is especially skilled at poetry recitation, and his friendship with Sei is based on their shared love of the art. Sei’s point about their relationship seems to be that if they became lovers, she would be expected to maintain a certain modesty about it in public, whereas now they can tease each other openly.
Themes
One evening, Secretary Controller Yukinari visits and stays talking until nearly dawn. The next morning he sends Sei a regretful note about having had to leave at the cock’s crow. Sei responds that perhaps he heard “the false cock of Lord Mengchang.” They exchange poems about guards and barrier gates, and although Sei is finally stumped about how to respond, Yukinari praises her perceptive nature to everyone—she’s not shallow and frivolous like many women.
According to a legend, Lord Mengchang arrived at a barrier gate one night while trying to evade capture by an enemy. He had one of his followers imitate a cock’s crow, signaling that the gates should be opened and thus allowing him to escape.
Themes
