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 talks about the thrill produced by various winds, especially storm winds. The day after a typhoon, the garden is in disarray, with leaves lodged in the lattices—a surprisingly delicate effect. When an elegant lady emerges after a storm-disrupted night, wearing her autumn colors, it’s a particularly “splendid” sight—she gazes at the disheveled garden and recites the poem, “I see why the word ‘storm.’”
The quoted poem is from the Kokinshu and it continues, “becomes in writing ‘mountain wind’ / for autumn’s trees and plants / all bend and wither in the force / of this wind from the mountain tops.” This poem is somewhat meta, since it describes the surrounding scenery while referencing the writing process itself.
Themes
It’s “elegantly intriguing” to overhear things at night—a meal being served, game-pieces or fire tongs being moved at a distance, a hushed conversation, or the distinct rustlings of different people’s clothes. The delicate blend of incense is also elegantly intriguing. Captain Tadanobu’s subtle blend of incense would linger long after he visited.
Many of these scenes hint at events whose details can only be guessed at, which demonstrates Sei’s intimate familiarity with the life of the court. Given this, it seems that she assumes either no one will read her diary entries or that those who do will also be acquainted with courtly proceedings.
Themes
Sei makes lists of islands, beaches, woods, temples, sutras, manifestations of Buddhas, and well-known tales, as well as games, dances, and musical instruments, both stringed and wind instruments. The various kinds of wind instruments bring to mind festivals, such as the Provisional Kamo Festival. It’s delightfully overcast and snowy, the indigo cloaks and artificial flowers standing out brightly. Even better is the imperial progress—amidst the pageantry, “you lost all sense of the fact that you spend your everyday life” in the Emperor’s proximity.
As elsewhere, many of the places and types of objects Sei chooses to list have poetic associations, or notably poetic names. The thought of a certain type of instrument prompts specific memories of the delights of a festival, which speaks to the tendency for emotional and sensorial memories to evoke an experience. Sei’s emphasis on events and festivals particularly highlights the splendor of the imperial family.
Themes
The Return of the Kamo High Priestess is also delightful. It’s hot at this time of year, and everyone is sweating, but the thrilling call of the hototogisu is heard. Once the procession is past, everyone pushes and shoves to leave, but one avoids the fray by taking a route through a mountain village, attaching sprays from a deutzia hedge to one’s carriage.
This festival, particularly a procession, revolved around the return of the Shinto high priestess to her sacred residence after the Kamo Festival, a festival surrounding a Shinto shrine.
Themes
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On the way to the Kamo Shrine, working women are singing in the rice fields. At first the sight is fascinating, but soon one is dismayed to make out their song, which is “something very rude about the dear hototogisu.”
Even when Sei finds some beauty and interest among the common people, it’s quickly dampened when she finds the content of their song objectionable.
Themes
When one is on one’s way somewhere, and one sees a “fine-looking fellow” carrying an official-looking letter, ones wonder what business he’s conducting. Or if one sees a pleasant-looking girl, her clogs caked with mud, carrying a package or some books somewhere, one wishes one could ask her about what she’s carrying. On the other hand, if one meets a rude servant, one can easily guess the character of her employers.
Sei’s thoughts of processions and journeys lead her to consider people encountered on the road who spark one’s curiosity. She sees common people, like servants, as reflections of those whom they serve.
Themes
Sei finds it “irritating” to see a poorly-dressed person going somewhere in a “miserable carriage.” It’s one thing if she’s attending a sermon, but if she’s going to the Kamo Festival or another event were one takes care with one’s very sleeves, one wonders why she even shows up.
Appearance is so important in the public life of the court that Sei can’t understand why a person would venture out in public unless their clothes and accessories match their surroundings.
Themes
One day, a man with an umbrella is seen on the palace grounds, and rumors circulate that he’s there for Sei. Later, by way of inquiry, the Empress sends Sei the beginning lines of a poem, prompting Sei to think “how marvelous [the Empress] is,” even in trivial matters. Sei replies with a note saying, “That umbrella has left me ‘in wet clothes.’”
The poem was probably “Umbrella Mountain,” and Sei’s reply puns on an idiom which means “to be the butt of false rumors.” Once again, poetry serves as a means by which Sei navigates court life and builds rapport with Empress Teishi.
Themes
