A Diarist's Table

I have set my table in the manner of a 10th century poet. Sei Shonagon was a highly educated woman of acerbic wit, lighting fast imagination and a keen eye for fashion and manners. She was famous for her diary, called “The Pillow Book.” 

Shonagon writes:
“One day a minister brought the Empress a bundle of notebooks. 
‘What shall we do with them?’ Her Majesty asked me. ‘The Emperor already has enough.’
‘Let me make them into a pillow,’ I said.
“Very well,” said her Majesty. “You may have them.” 
I now have a vast quantity of paper at my disposal and I set about filling the notebooks with odd facts, stories from the past, and all sorts of other things, often including the most trivial material.”

I have set my table with modern, ancient objects that might have delighted her:

• Wrinkled momi paper representing a flowing river 
• Unpainted wooden table
• Unpainted wooden cup filled with ink
• Bamboo straw with a paper umbrella
• Eating utensils of chopsticks and calligraphy brush resting on an old-fashioned comb and a coaster of black origami
• Tablecloth of mulberry paper with flowing hiragana and kanji script
• Tray of sandalwood Buddhist prayer beads and incense
• Paper boat carrying chiyogami wrapped clams 
• Shuttlecocks on a plate made of banana leaves
• A tiny tin of rouge