Zuihitsu

This blog is inspired by Makura no Sōshi ("The Pillow Book"), a collection of anecdotes, observations, lists, stray thoughts, and gossip jotted down in the 10th century by Sei Shonagon, an imperial court functionary during Japan's Heian period. The Pillow Book was an early example of what came to be known as the zuihitsu ("random jottings") style of Japanese writing. The genre comprises short essays, musings, observations, and idea fragments, many of which are concerned with the fleeting, transitory nature of existence.

Hence the title of this online pillow book. The phrase "vain amours" is from a poem by the late 17th/early 18th century preacher and hymn writer Isaac Watts:

I'm tir'd of visits, modes and forms
And flatt'ries paid to fellow worms;
Their conversation cloys,
Their vain amours and empty stuff,
But I can ne'er enjoy enough
Of thy best company, my Lord,
Thou life of all my joys.

Because all things are ephemeral, all amours are ultimately vain. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't pay attention to the ephemera as they flicker by, and then are gone.