Sei Shōnagon
c. 966 CE–c. 1017 CE · Writer · Heian-kyō (Kyoto)
Sei Shōnagon was a Japanese court lady and writer of the Heian period, best known as the author of The Pillow Book (Makura no Sōshi), a collection of observations, lists, anecdotes, and impressions of aristocratic life. Daughter of the scholar and waka poet Kiyohara no Motosuke, she entered the service of Empress Teishi (Sadako) around 993 and remained at the imperial court in Heian-kyō until roughly 1000, when the empress died. Her work, composed in vernacular Japanese, is a foundational example of the zuihitsu (miscellany) genre. Almost nothing is documented of her life after the court years, and later accounts of her old age are traditional rather than verified.
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Heian-kyō (Kyoto)
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Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Sei Shōnagon’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
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Islamic world
Jewish world
Christian world
Hindu world
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Rulers world
- Basil II· 958 CE–1025 CE
- Hisham II· 966 CE–1013 CE
- al-Qadir· 947 CE–1031 CE
- Vladimir the Great· 958 CE–1015 CE
- Mahmud of Ghazni· 971 CE–1030 CE
- Ly Thai To· 974 CE–1028 CE
- Rajaraja Chola I· 947 CE–1014 CE
- al-Aziz Billah· 955 CE–996 CE
- Rajendra Chola I· 971 CE–1044 CE
- Almanzor (al-Mansur ibn Abi Aamir)· 938 CE–1002 CE
- Yaropolk I of Kiev· 958 CE–980 CE
- Yaroslav the Wise· 978 CE–1054 CE
- al-Zahir li-I'zaz Din Allah· 1005 CE–1036 CE
- Sabuktigin· –997 CE
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