PILLOW BOOK

Japanese Makura No Soshi (c. 1000), title of a book of reminiscences and impressions by the 11th-century Japanese court lady Sei Shonagon (q.v.). Whether the title was generic and whether Sei Shonagon herself used it is not known, but other diaries of the Heian period (7941185) indicate that such journals may have been kept by both men and women in their sleeping quarters, hence the name. The entries in Makura no soshi, although some are dated, are not in chronological order but rather are divided under such headings as Amusing Things and Vexatious Things. A complete English translation of Makura no soshi by Ivan Morris appeared in 1967 (The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon). The Pillow Book belongs to the genre of zuihitsu (random jottings). Tsurezuregusa, by Yoshida Kenko (q.v.), is an outstanding 14th-century example of this genre.