Three Treasures

Princess Sonshi took Buddhist vows and became a nun in 984. So that she could understand the faith, a scholar serving the royal court was asked to write an introduction to Buddhism she could follow. He chose the illustrated prose tales known as monogatari, a form popular with women of her rank and era. Later manuscripts of the text survive, but any pictures it once contained have been lost.

This translation aims to recreate the experience of Sonshi receiving the work as a multimedia presentation. Its illustrations have been chosen to help modern readers picture what the text describes. Essays accompany the translation and explain the religious and cultural world of the author.

The book is a distinctive source on Buddhist practice in high classical Japan, especially as experienced by women. It was produced in the same period as Sei Shōnagon's The Pillow Book and Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji, and it offers a view of that world from a different angle.