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 lists bridges, villages, and plants of interest to her. She particularly likes plants that have sacred associations, interesting names, or charming appearances. Most “marvelous” are lotus leaves, because they symbolize the teachings of Buddhism, and their seeds can be used to make powerful rosaries.
As elsewhere, Sei’s lists are sprinkled with poetic and symbolic associations, demonstrating how her delight in her surroundings is framed by the expectations of her culture and the literary canon.
Themes
Sei lists various flowering plants—those whose colors and names she likes and those which she finds less pleasant. Some plants’ beauty varies with the seasons. The rusty red of plume grass, for example, gives autumn fields a special loveliness, but once winter comes, it begins to resemble “some aged crone still dreaming of her past glories.”
The transience of the seasons was a recurring theme in classical Japanese poetry, hence Sei’s attention to the changes one sees while observing plants throughout the year.
Themes
Sei observes that there are certain things which can’t be compared—like summer and winter, night and day, old age and youth, and a man one loves and the same man once one has ceased to love him.
Sei’s point seems to be not that these things literally can’t be compared, but that they’re so opposite that one can find nothing in common between them. Rather than trying to analyze the underlying qualities of this things, Sei seems more concerned with how they differ aesthetically and emotionally—all of her observations are filtered through a poetic lens.
Themes
Summer is the best time for a secret affair, Sei says, because the nights are so short. The windows are left open overnight, leaving things deliciously cool. When a crow caws loudly, the couple feels delightfully exposed for a brief moment. On the other hand, it’s very annoying when one’s lover is accompanied by an impatient attendant who keeps grumbling on the other side of the fence.
Sei highlights two sides of secret court affairs—the exhilaration of potential discovery, and the reality that a courtier probably can’t conceal his affair from his staff.
Themes
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“Rare things” include someone who’s praised by their in-laws, lovers who remain on good terms all their lives, and copying out a tale or a volume of poems without smearing ink everywhere.
Sei’s lists of everyday occurrences like this are often marked by a humorous realism, demonstrating her ability to find delight even in mundane experiences or mishaps.
Themes
