big life; small space

Sei Shonagon was a Heian period noble woman and rival of the Ladt Murusai who wrote The Tale of the Genji. Her diary, known as a pillowbook is widely available and is a wonderful cultural document of the time. Aside from court gossip, it contains lengthy lists on all number of subjects so as things she finds pretty, or hateful or moving. It also contains a number of incredibly poems, which were the text of the characters painted on Ewan McGregor in The Pillow Book.