The Pillow Book

by

Sei Shonagon

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Pillow Book makes teaching easy.
Themes and Colors
Court Life vs. Common Life Theme Icon
Poetry and Social Relationships Theme Icon
Aesthetic Beauty, Delight, and Cultural Tradition Theme Icon
Romance and Official Duty Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Pillow Book, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Poetry and Social Relationships Theme Icon

In Empress Teishi’s court, knowledge of classical poetry was neither an academic pursuit nor a frivolous pastime. Rather, courtier Sei Shōnagon’s diary entries in The Pillow Book suggest that poetry was woven into everyday conversations and was often a defining aspect of one’s social status and relationships. Courtiers like Sei would have avidly studied classic poetry collections like the Japanese anthology Kokinshu, and would have also been skilled in composing poems on the spur of the moment in response to various social situations. Through a variety of illustrations from Sei’s life in court—her own interactions with Empress Teishi, as well as exchanges she’s witnessed between peers and lovers—Sei shows that poetry is far more than a way of expressing oneself—it’s a delicate yet consequential medium for securing and maintaining relationships in the world of the imperial court.

Poetic ability is not only portrayed as a status symbol, but as a means of securing and maintaining one’s place in the Empress’s favor, and thus, one’s status in court. An example of the way poetry functions in the court comes up when Empress Teishi invites her ladies to write down the first ancient poem that comes to mind—sending Sei into a panic. “‘Come on, come on,’ [the Empress] scolded, ‘don’t waste time racking your brains. Just quickly jot down any ancient poem that comes to you on the spur of the moment. Even something hackneyed will do.’ I’ve no idea why we should have felt so daunted by the task, but we all found ourselves blushing deeply, and our minds went quite blank.” When Sei finally comes up with a poem, she changes a line extolling the “flower of spring” to extolling “your face, my lady.” Sei’s instincts about the high stakes of this exercise are confirmed when the Empress looks at the poems and comments, “I just wanted to discover what was in your hearts.” The panic is justified: the Empress wanted to assess her ladies’ attitudes toward her through the medium of spontaneous poetry-writing.

Poetry is not just a form of entertainment, but a sign of cultural attainment in which court ladies feel pressure to prove themselves. On one occasion, the Empress opens the book of famous poems, the Kokinshu, and quizzes her ladies by reading a few lines from a poem and then asking the ladies to complete the poem from memory. Recalling this event, Sei wonders, “Why on earth did we keep stumbling over the answers, even for poems we’d engraved on our memories day in and day out? […] Her Majesty then read out the complete poem for each of those that nobody had been able to answer, […] and everyone groaned, ‘Oh of course I knew that one! Why am I being so stupid today?’ Some of us had copied out the Kokinshu many times, and should really have known it all by heart.” Sei’s regretful recollection of the memory contest shows that, in the imperial court, a simple poetry game is much more than that—it’s a way of proving one’s skills and distinguishing oneself before one’s peers and especially before the empress she serves. Hence, Sei pours many hours into memorizing the Kokinshu.

Beyond poetry’s role in court life, Sei shows it to be a key mediator of other important relationships, too. Poetry can be a mode of communication between friends, and even a form of flirtation between lovers. At one point, Sei reflects on the potential of poetry exchange to damage promising relationships: “There are also those times when you send someone a poem you’re rather pleased with, and fail to receive one in reply. […] [Y]ou do lose respect for someone who doesn’t produce any response to your tasteful seasonal references. It also dampens the spirit when you’re leading a heady life in the swim of things and you receive some boring little old-fashioned poem that reeks of the longueurs of the writer, whose time hangs heavy on her hands.” When one puts one’s talent on display—and one’s reputation on the line—by sending a poem, in other words, one hopes to receive a reply in kind. A reply that doesn’t meet one’s expectations reflects poorly on the sender, and can thereby even potentially derail a relationship. On a certain occasion, when a young lady-in-waiting doesn’t reply to a captain’s suggestive poem, Sei feels more sympathy for the disappointed sender than the girl who’s been put on the spot: “Still, I thought, it’s no good being bashful and hesitant when it comes to poetic composition. Where does that ever get you? Though your poem might not be so very wonderful, the important thing is that it must be something you come out with on the spur of the moment. And besides, I felt sorry for the [messenger], who was pacing about snapping his fingers in vexation at the lack of poem.” In other words, poetry is a serious business. In the context of the imperial court, it’s less important to produce a masterpiece than to show the mental dexterity of being able to engage in the language of spontaneous poetic exchange. Failure at this puts other people in a difficult position, showing that poetry isn’t just a medium of individual expression, but a kind of cultural glue that cements and reinforces relationships between individuals and their larger society.

Related Themes from Other Texts
Compare and contrast themes from other texts to this theme…
Get the entire The Pillow Book LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Pillow Book PDF

Poetry and Social Relationships Quotes in The Pillow Book

Below you will find the important quotes in The Pillow Book related to the theme of Poetry and Social Relationships.
Section 20 Quotes

Her Majesty provided us with the inkstone. ‘Come on, come on,’ she scolded, ‘don’t waste time racking your brains. Just quickly jot down any ancient poem that comes to you on the spur of the moment. Even something hackneyed will do.’ I’ve no idea why we should have felt so daunted by the task, but we all found ourselves blushing deeply, and our minds went quite blank. Despite their protestations, some of the senior gentlewomen managed to produce two or three poems on spring themes such as blossoms and so forth, and then my turn came. I wrote down the poem:

With the passing years
My years grow old upon me
yet when I see
this lovely flower of spring
I forget age and time.

but I changed ‘flower of spring’ to ‘your face, my lady’.

Her Majesty ran her eye over the poems, remarking, ‘I just wanted to discover what was in your hearts.’

Related Characters: Sei Shōnagon (speaker), Empress Teishi (speaker)
Page Number: 19
Explanation and Analysis:
Sections 21–29 Quotes

There are also those times when you send someone a poem you’re rather pleased with, and fail to receive one in reply. Of course there’s no more to be done about it if it’s to a man you care for. Even so, you do lose respect for someone who doesn’t produce any response to your tasteful seasonal references. It also dampens the spirit when you’re leading a heady life in the swim of things and you receive some boring little old-fashioned poem that reeks of the longueurs of the writer, whose time hangs heavy on her hands.

Related Characters: Sei Shōnagon (speaker)
Page Number: 25
Explanation and Analysis:

Things that make your heart beat fast—A sparrow with nestlings. Going past a place where tiny children are playing. Lighting some fine incense and then lying down alone to sleep. Looking into a Chinese mirror that’s a little clouded. A fine gentleman pulls up in his carriage and sends in some request.

Related Characters: Sei Shōnagon (speaker)
Page Number: 30
Explanation and Analysis:
Sections 34–45 Quotes

The uguisu is made out to be a wonderful bird in Chinese poetry, and both its voice and its appearance are really so enchanting that it’s very unseemly of it not to sing inside the grounds of our ‘nine-fold palace’. People did tell me this was so but I couldn’t believe it, yet during my ten years in the palace I did indeed never once hear it. This despite the fact that the palace is near bamboo groves and there are red plums, which would make it a fine place for an uguisu to come and go. Yet if you go out, you’ll hear one singing fit to burst in a nondescript plum tree in some lowly garden. […] In summer and right through to the end of autumn it maunders on and on in a wavery old voice, and lower sorts of people change its name to ‘flycatcher’, which I find quite unfortunate and ludicrous.

Related Characters: Sei Shōnagon (speaker)
Page Number: 45
Explanation and Analysis:
Sections 72–77 Quotes

There was nothing in [the letter] to justify my nervousness. He had written the line from Bo Juyi, ‘You are there in the flowering capital, beneath the Council Chamber’s brocade curtains’, and added, ‘How should it end, tell me?’

‘What on earth shall I do?’ I wondered. ‘If Her Majesty were here I’d most certainly show this to her. It would look bad to parade the fact that I know the next line by writing it in my poor Chinese characters.’ […]

[S]o I seized a piece of dead charcoal from the brazier and simply wrote at the end of his letter, in Japanese script,

Who will come visiting this grass-thatched hut?

The messenger duly carried it off, but there was no response.

Related Characters: Sei Shōnagon (speaker), Empress Teishi, Fujiwara Tadanobu
Page Number: 67
Explanation and Analysis:
Sections 83–87 Quotes

[A messenger] made his way over discreetly to where the ladies were seated and apparently asked in a whisper why nothing was forthcoming. I was sitting four people away from Kohyoe, so even if I’d been able to come up with some response it would have been difficult to say it, and besides, how could you offer some merely average poem in reply to one by Sanekata, who was so famous for his poetic skills? Still, I thought, it’s no good being bashful and hesitant when it comes to poetic composition. Where does that ever get you? Though your poem might not be so very wonderful, the important thing is that it must be something you come out with on the spur of the moment.

Related Characters: Sei Shōnagon (speaker), Kohyoe, Sanekata
Page Number: 89
Explanation and Analysis:
Sections 88–95 Quotes

‘Whenever there’s an occasion when people are composing, and Your Majesty instructs me to make a poem, my only impulse is to flee. Not that I don’t understand the rules of syllable count, or that I make winter poems in spring, or write about plum blossom or cherry blossom in autumn, or anything of that sort. But after all, I come from a line of people with a name for good poetry, so I’d like it to be said that my poems are a bit better than the average. When I compose something, I want people to say later, “This was a particularly impressive poem composed on that occasion - just what you’d expect, considering her forebears.” It’s an offence to my late father’s name, to fancy myself as a poet and put myself forward to make some plausible-sounding poem, when in fact what I write has nothing special to recommend it at all.’

Related Characters: Sei Shōnagon (speaker), Empress Teishi
Page Number: 102
Explanation and Analysis:
Sections 120–129 Quotes

When I went out to meet him, he said admiringly, ‘I would have expected the person who received that to respond with some half-baked poem, but your reply was brilliant. A woman who fancies herself as a poet generally leaps at the chance to compose, but I much prefer someone who doesn’t behave like that. For the likes of me, a person who loves to reply with a poem comes across as actually having a much poorer sensibility than someone who doesn’t.’

[…] It’s very unseemly of me to boast like this, I know, but on the other hand I do think it’s an entertaining story.

Related Characters: Sei Shōnagon (speaker), Fujiwara Yukinari
Page Number: 132
Explanation and Analysis:
Sections 160–176 Quotes

Once, during the reign of the former Emperor Murakami, there was a great fall of snow. The moon was bright. His Majesty heaped snow in a bowl, stood a spray of flowering plum in it and gave it to the Lady Chamberlain, Hyoe, saying, ‘See what poem you can compose on this.’ Her response was to recite the words of the Chinese poem, ‘At times of snow, moonlight and blossom’, for which he praised her very highly. ‘There’s nothing unusual in producing a poem,’ he said, ‘but it’s far more difficult to say something that is so precisely apt for the occasion.’

Related Characters: Sei Shōnagon (speaker), Emperor Murakami (speaker), Hyoe
Page Number: 168
Explanation and Analysis: