As we read, we might wish that our life were as interesting as hers: and yet Shōnagon is secretly sharing the technique that would make our own existence equally rich if we just knew how to ask ourselves more interesting questions. As with so many great books, Shōnagon’s Pillow Book le...
An antidote to our sense of tedium can be found in the work of Sei Shōnagon. Around a thousand years ago, she kept a journal of the decade or soshespent as a lady-in-waiting at the Imperial Place in Kyoto, then the capital of Japan. Despise the high-status of her job, her daily...