Sei Shōnagon Quotes

Japanese author and court lady

Sei Shōnagon (966-1017/1025) was a Japanese author and a court lady who served the Empress Consort Teishi around the year 1000. She is known as the author of The Pillow Book (makura no sōshi).

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Alternative Names: Sei Shonagon • Sei Shounagon

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Things That Lose by Being Painted
Pinks, cherry blossoms, yellow roses. Men or women who are praised in romances as being beautiful.<p>Things That Gain by Being Painted
Pines. Autumn fields. Mountain villages and paths. Cranes and deer. A very cold winter scene; an unspeakably hot summer scene. (p. 138)

A man who has nothing in particular to recommend him discusses all sorts of subjects at random as though he knew everything. (p. 44)

One is telling a story about old times when someone breaks in with a little detail that he happens to know, implying that one's own version is inaccurate — disgusting behavior! (p. 46)

Splendid Things
Chinese brocade. A sword with a decorated scabbard. The grain of the wood in a Buddhist statue. Long flowering branches of beautifully coloured wistaria entwined about a pine tree. (p. 109)

Sei Shōnagon Quotes

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