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Social Status In The Heian Era Essay

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Recommended: Golden age in japan of the heian period

Oscar Kuo
JPN101 First Essay
Professor Gundry
November 4, 2015
Importance of Social Status
The Heian period was the highpoint of Japanese aristocratic culture, a golden age of peace and harmony. Upper class men and women were expected to dress well. Poetry was often used to communicate between men and women. However, even though aristocratic women had considerable freedoms during the Heian period, they were still not treated as equals to men. The Kagero Diary translated by Sonja Arntzen, and The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon both depict the inequality of women and men and the importance of social status in the Heian society. The author of The Kagero Diary lived in the middle of Heian period, a time when Japan was peaceful and isolated from the outside world. Similarly, women’s society also had an isolated quality. Since the “aristocratic society within the capital was very …show more content…

Similar to the Kagero Diary, Shonagon’s Pillow Book also depicts the inequalities between women and men and the importance of material items with social status. There were many rules targeted towards women only. For example, it was “unpleasant to see a women of a certain age with a young husband; and it is most unsuitable when she becomes jealous of him because he has gone to visit someone else” (Morris 71). Clothing serves as an important symbol of social status and communicates one’s place in society. It is said in the story, “nothing can be worse than allowing the driver of one’s ox-carriage to be poorly dressed” (Morris 78). Also, a woman cannot be treated with too much respect and is addressed in a subtle manner by men: “it is looked down upon when a wealthy young man visits a woman of lower rank calls out her name...he should slur it slightly as though he had forgotten it” (Morris

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