The Pillow Book

Peter Greenaway's Pillow Book is Sei Shonagon's tenth-century story redux. Shonagon's protagonist is recast as Nogiko, a beautiful young writer. As a child, Nogiko was affected by two seminal experiences--her father writing on her face each birthday, and her mother reading to her from a thousand-year-old "pillow book," a diary kept by its author (also a woman named Nogiko) in the drawer of a wooden pillow. As a grown woman, the contemporary Nogiko is obsessed with finding lovers to write on her body. After each physical encounter with a lover, Nogiko painstakingly transcribes what he has written, even if it means using mirrors to decipher those characters on parts of her body such as the small of the back or the eyelid. Nogiko's efforts to preserve her lovers' writings and her need to continue the tradition illustrate the physical and sensual power of literature. This book includes Greenaway's original screenplay (before the final movie edit), color stills from the film, and Greenaway's illuminating notes on the story.