Sei Shōnagon

Sei Shōnagon (清少納言, lesser councilor of state Sei), (c. 966–1017/1025) was a Japanese author, poet and a court lady who served the Empress Teishi (Sadako) around the year 1000 during the middle Heian period. She is the author of The Pillow Book (枕草子, makura no sōshi).

Name

Sei Shōnagon's actual given name is not known. It was the custom among aristocrats in those days to call a court lady by a nickname taken from a court office belonging to her father or husband.Sei (清) derives from her father's family name "Kiyohara" (the native Japanese reading of the first character is kiyo, while the Sino-Japanese reading is sei), while Shōnagon (少納言, "lesser councilor of state") refers to a government post. Her relationship to this post is unknown, though—neither her father nor either of her two husbands held such a post. Bun'ei Tsunoda has suggested that it may have belonged to a third husband, perhaps Fujiwara no Nobuyoshi.

Her actual name has been a topic of debate among scholars, who consider Kiyohara no Nagiko (清原 諾子) a possibility.