Biography...
about the lady
Sei Shonagon was born in the year 965 AD, in the middle of the Heian era. Her real name was not Sei Shonagon -- it was the custom among nobility for a lady of the court to be addressed by a nickname of sorts formed by combining her clan name and the name of a court-position held by a relative. "Sei" is first character in the
kanji (Chinese word-letters) that form "Kiyohara", her clan, and "Shonagon" is a government post translating to "minor counsellor". Shonagon's real name isn't known, although scholars favour
Kiyohara Nagiko.
Apart from what she wrote about in her famous diary, little is known of her life. Her family had literary influence but not political. She was the daughter of Kiyohara no Motosuke, a scholar and
waka poet, and her grandfather, Kiyohara no Fukayabu, was also reknowned for his poetry skills. Both her father and grandfather were middle-ranking courtiers, but despite this did know monetary difficulties, as they were never given a position in court which granted revenue. It is known that she married once, and had a daughter, but by the time she entered the service of Empress Consort Teishi, wife to Emperor Ichijo, she had divorced.
She entered into Empress Teishi's (or Sadako, in pure Japanese) service in 990. For five years, Teishi's salon was the hub of cultural activity, until her father Fujiwara no Michitaka died in 995 and her uncle Michinaga brought his own daughter, Shoshi (or Akiko) to the Emperor's attention and Teishi's position became very precarious and remained so until her death in childbirth in 1000 -- Shonagon remained by her side until that time. Shoshi had her own literary salon, one member of which was the famous Murasaki Shikibu, author of
Genji Monogatari. The two ladies-in-waiting were rivals -- at times, quite cuttingly so.
There are no details of Shonagon's life after the Empress' death -- she left the court and vanished into the twilight. One legend, possibly started by a detractor of hers, had her living out her fading years in poor health and wealth, but it does not seem likely. She finished her Pillow Book in 1010, and possibly gifted it to Teishi's daughter.
