Penguin Archive: A Lady in Kyoto

All moonlight is moving, wherever it may be...

Japanese gentlewoman Sei Shonagon invites us to look behind the painted screens in the Emperor's palace and discover a lost world, in which games of poetry are the highest form of wit, lovers send each other elegant morning-after letters, and appreciation of the natural world - wild geese in autumn, the pure white frost of winter - is one of life's most exquisite pleasures.