Talk:The Pillow Book

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While the article does not explain it very well (at present), the book does in fact figure in the Greenaway film of the same name. Decklin 22:54, 13 August 2005 (UTC)

I don't think this article is sufficiently accurate, or at least is not placed well. A pillow book was a medieval Japanese diary of sorts, drawing it's name from the wooden pillow/headrest that was sometimes used for sleeping during this period. This "pillow" might have a small compartment in it to store various personal things, such as something to write on.

A "pillow book," then, is meant to describe a small "notebook" in which the author enters whatever they wish during quiet moments in their sleeping area (and, later, the term became a more general reference to a personal compilation of thoughts and musings). While we term this a diary, the material that might find it's way into a Heian pillow book was of much more broader categories than what we today would think appropriate for a diary (as demonstrated of course by Shonagon's pillow book).

While the best (only?) example of a pillow book is Sei Shonagon's, I don't think it's a hot idea to list this page as it is now listed, nor name it as it is. Currently, two separate issues are being blurred into one, being Shonagon's book on one hand, and more generally what type of book it is an example of on the other.

I think perhaps this article should instead be two articles:

1. An article on the book by Sei Shonagon, with the article titled "The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon". This would contain a link as well to #2 below. The recent movie "The Pillow Book" has perhaps added to a slight blur as to how exactly to name Shonagon's book. She herself would just have said "It's my pillow book," leaving us to come up with a name for it. Taking a lead from what is perhaps the best known translation (by Ivan Morris), I think it best to call the book by the full name "The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon"

2. An article titled "pillow book" , describing what a pillow book is in the context of Japanese literature, as mentioned earlier. Of course, this new article would contain a link to the best known example, being #1 above. (anon., Sept 30, 2005)

No Japanese dictionary I have consulted lists "makura no soosi" as meaning anything but the work by Sei Shonagon. Scholars seem to agree that the title comes from a particular passage in the work where Sei Shonagon makes a punning suggestion that her text be used like a pillow. Where do you get this idea that "pillow book" was a wider term used for any diary?