The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon

This is a miscellany of observations, lists, and anecdotes written by Sei Shōnagon, a lady at the court of Empress Teishi in Heian Japan around the year 1000. She records ceremonies, clothes, weather, and the manners of gentlemen who send poems at dawn; she also makes ranked catalogues of things that are hateful, splendid, or merely awkward. Rivalries inside the palace and excursions outside it appear as brief scenes rather than as a plot. The work is a court notebook of taste and incident, not a novel and not a chronicle of the reign.

Full black artificial silk binding gilt printed with Japanese characters. Lilac endleaves. Pale lilac or black slipcase.