"Sei Shonagon was a court lady in tenth-century Japan at the height of Heian culture. In her Pillow Book she notes down all the things that attract, displease or interest her in daily life. She was an enthusiast for good manners and good taste -- whether this applied to dress, servants, or the correct behavior of lovers." --From the 1967 translation of The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon, by Ivan Morris