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“8. The Cat Who Lived in the Palace
The cat who lived in the Palace had been awarded the head-dress of nobility and was called Lady Myobu.”
― Sei Shōnagon, The Pillow Book

“I do wish men, when they're taking their leave from a lady at dawn, wouldn't insist on adjusting their clothes to a nicety, or fussily tying their lacquered cap securely into place. After all, who would laugh at a man or criticize him if they happened to catch sight of him on his way home from an assignation in fearful disarray, with his cloak or hunting costume all awry?”
― Sei Shōnagon, The Pillow Book

“Love

Thinking, thinking thus,
loving thus, there is no sleep,
I see him, we meet,
to be woken from that dream
that is suffering indeed.”
― Michitsuna no Haha, The Gossamer Years: The Diary of a Noblewoman of Heian Japan

“The entrenched interests of the regional nobility prevented the proper functioning of a government built upon ethical practice. While high-minded scholars often called for reforms, their memoranda carried little weight with an idle aristocracy.”
― Joan Stanley-Baker, Japanese Art