Noel’s Reviews > The Pillow Book > Status Update
Noel
is on page 213 of 364
I was talking with some people in Her Majesty’s presence – or it may have been something I said as a result of her own words – and I remarked, ‘At times when I’m beside myself with exasperation at everything, and temporarily inclined to feel I’d simply be better off dead, or am longing to just go away somewhere, anywhere, then if I happen to come by some lovely white paper for everyday use and a…
— Nov 24, 2025 11:20AM
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Noel’s Previous Updates
Noel
is on page 193 of 364
On a bright moonlit night, when your carriage is crossing a stream, it’s lovely the way the water will spray up in shining drops at the ox’s tread, like shattered crystal.
— Nov 24, 2025 11:09AM
Noel
is on page 163 of 364
Things that are near yet far – The Miyanobe Festival.
Relationships between siblings or relatives who don’t like each other.
The winding path up to Kurama Temple.
The first day of the new year, seen from the last day of the old.
Things that are far yet near – Paradise.
The course of a boat.
Relations between men and women.
— Nov 18, 2025 09:28PM
Relationships between siblings or relatives who don’t like each other.
The winding path up to Kurama Temple.
The first day of the new year, seen from the last day of the old.
Things that are far yet near – Paradise.
The course of a boat.
Relations between men and women.
Noel
is on page 162 of 364
Things now useless that recall a glorious past – A fine embroidery-edged mat that’s become threadbare.
A screen painted in the Chinese style, that’s now turned dark and discoloured and developed a scarred surface.
A painter with poor eyesight.
A switch of false hair seven or eight feet long, that’s now fading and taking on a reddish tinge.
Grape-coloured fabric when the ash dye has turned.
[…]
— Nov 18, 2025 09:26PM
A screen painted in the Chinese style, that’s now turned dark and discoloured and developed a scarred surface.
A painter with poor eyesight.
A switch of false hair seven or eight feet long, that’s now fading and taking on a reddish tinge.
Grape-coloured fabric when the ash dye has turned.
[…]
Noel
is on page 130 of 364
It’s beautiful the way the water drops hang so thick and dripping on the garden plants after a night of rain in the ninth month, when the morning sun shines fresh and dazzling on them. Where the rain clings in the spider webs that hang in the open weave of a screening fence or draped on the eaves, it forms the most moving and beautiful strings of white pearly drops.
I also love the way, when the sun has…
— Nov 14, 2025 05:04PM
I also love the way, when the sun has…
Noel
is on page 127 of 364
Awkward and pointless things – … In the grip of foolish jealousy, a wife takes herself off and goes into hiding from her husband, certain that he’ll come looking for her – but he’s in no mind to do so, and goes about his business with brazen indifference, so she must face the fact that she can’t stay away from home indefinitely, and finally decides to return of her own accord.
— Nov 14, 2025 04:53PM
Noel
is on page 119 of 364
Things that lose by being painted – Pinks. Sweet flag. Cherry blossom. Men and women described in tales as looking splendid.
Things that gain by being painted – Pine trees. Autumn fields. Mountain villages. Mountain paths.
Winter is best when it’s fearfully cold, while summer is most summer-like when it’s impossibly hot.
— Nov 13, 2025 11:28PM
Things that gain by being painted – Pine trees. Autumn fields. Mountain villages. Mountain paths.
Winter is best when it’s fearfully cold, while summer is most summer-like when it’s impossibly hot.
Noel
is on page 85 of 364
Toward the middle of the twelfth month there’s a great fall of snow. The ladies decide they should have a snow mountain built in the garden. All the servants at home are asked to come help create an “absolutely towering snow mountain” under the threat of losing three days’ pay. The Empress asks everyone how long they think the mountain will last. Everyone gives opinions ranging over a week or two, but…
— Nov 13, 2025 06:15PM
Noel
is on page 75 of 364
Things that create the appearance of deep emotion – The sound of your voice when you’re constantly blowing your runny nose as you talk.
Plucking your eyebrows.
(Finally on my reading break after days of being sleep deprived, so hopefully I’ll get through this the next week.)
— Nov 09, 2025 03:58PM
Plucking your eyebrows.
(Finally on my reading break after days of being sleep deprived, so hopefully I’ll get through this the next week.)
Noel
is on page 62 of 364
Rare things – A son-in-law who’s praised by his wife’s father. Likewise, a wife who’s loved by her mother-in-law.
A pair of silver tweezers that can actually pull out hairs properly.
A retainer who doesn’t speak ill of his master.
A person who is without a single quirk. Someone who’s superior in both appearance and character, and who’s remained utterly blameless throughout his long…
[…]
— Oct 04, 2025 07:17AM
A pair of silver tweezers that can actually pull out hairs properly.
A retainer who doesn’t speak ill of his master.
A person who is without a single quirk. Someone who’s superior in both appearance and character, and who’s remained utterly blameless throughout his long…
[…]
Noel
is on page 47 of 364
Shōnagon finds it “unsuitable” that snow falls on the houses of the common folk. “Moonlight shining into such houses is also a great shame.”
— Oct 03, 2025 02:34PM
‘The simplest trifles console you, don’t they,’ remarked Her Majesty with a smile. ‘It must have been a very different sort of person who gazed at “the moon above sad Obasute Mountain”.’
The others who were present also teased me with such comments as, ‘You’ve certainly come up with an incredibly easy version of a magical formula for averting trouble!’
Not long after this, when I’d gone back home and was in great distress, Her Majesty sent me a wrapped gift of twenty bundles of magnificent paper. With it came a message, relayed through one of the gentlewomen, asking me to make haste and return, and saying, ‘Her Majesty asks me to tell you that this is because of what you said that day. She doubts if it’s fine enough for copying out the Sutra of Longevity…’ I was absolutely thrilled. It would have been wonderful enough even if it hadn’t been Her Majesty but some ordinary person who’d recalled a conversation I’d long forgotten myself, but in this case the words were particularly special for me. I was thrown into delighted confusion by them, and could find no way of responding, so I simply gave the messenger by way of reply:
‘though please say to Her Majesty that I fear this is overstating it,’ I added. I gave the messenger, one of the serving women from the Table Room, a gift of a green damask shift.
Yes indeed, I thought to myself with pleasure, it will be fun to be distracted from my worries by throwing myself into the business of creating a bound book from this paper.