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 describes an occasion when the Empress Teishi moved into a new house. The gentlewomen, never having seen the house, assume that they will be able to exit their carriages in private, so they don’t fix their hair. When it turns out that the carriages don’t fit through the gate of the new place, the disheveled gentlewomen have to walk past courtiers and other men, to Sei’s exasperation. Sei teases Narimasa, the senior steward, for building such inadequate gates.
Like her lists, Sei’s anecdotes of court life generally don’t proceed in a detectable order. In most cases, as here, her concern is to highlight a story she regards as humorous or otherwise noteworthy. Because female courtiers were typically separated from men behind screens and curtains, this exposure would have been uniquely embarrassing.
Themes
One day, the Emperor’s cat is basking on the veranda, and a gentlewoman summons a dog, Okinamaro, to scare the cat away. The Emperor orders two chamberlains to beat the dog and banish it to Dog Island for this behavior. The ladies feel sorry for the poor dog. A few days later, a wretched-looking, trembling dog wanders in, but no one recognizes it. The next morning, the Empress is grieving Okinamaro’s fate when the dog begins to whimper at the sound of its name. They realize the dog is Okinamaro after all, and he’s pardoned and welcomed back. Sei marvels at the dog’s humanlike emotions.
The rather shocking treatment of the dog by the Emperor’s men suggests that the women, who relied on indoor companionship and entertainment, had a more tender regard for their pets than the men generally did. Sei, especially, often has a soft spot for creatures that show what she considers to be humanlike traits, which is consistent with her attentiveness to okashi (aesthetic delight). “Dog Island” was probably a refuge for unwanted dogs.
Themes
Sei lists mountains, markets, peaks, and plains. She also lists river pools and ponders the origins of their names. She lists other bodies of water, imperial tombs, ferry crossings, and well-known buildings.
Through most of this section, Sei lists places whose names she finds intriguing. Most often, the point of mentioning a place isn’t to comment on the place itself, but merely to appreciate its poetic associations.
Themes
