Preceded by the Nara period, Heian Japan was the apogee of Japanese aristocratic culture. This period had a well-defined system of hierarchy and order that contributed to giving great importance to the society of the time. Works of poetry and fiction were prized in society. Despite the integration of Chinese influences into Japanese culture, distinct native Japanese still managed to flourish in some works of art. Analyzing gender dualism, it was widely accepted that women wrote in the traditional Japanese style, called kana, and men wrote in the “borrowed” Chinese language. This means that the women used the “everyday” language of ordinary Japanese people; while the men practiced the most exclusive and “official” language of the Chinese. This is the largest and most understandable reason why literature written by women of the era has survived the centuries of its lifespan and allows us the most important portal into the Heian period of Japanese culture, to view gender and status roles. This historical period produced an abundance of “female vernacular” literature. It gives us an insight into the life of a court lady; a woman closer to the top of a woman's socially stratified existence. Sei Shōnagon is famous for her work The Pillow Book. Sei Shōnagon herself said in “Women and High Offices,” that women had to be, more or less, born into their high-status roles; while men had the ability to work their way up the totem pole through “promotions.” This, in itself, outlines the hierarchical system that typically favored social mobility in the hands of men. Which explains why men could afford the luxury of learning to read and write Chinese. Chinese was the language of legal and religious documents, and the a... medium of paper... a glimpse into the past. Unlike the archaic Chinese writing used by men, women of the time used kana to process everyday events, with important details. We are fortunate to be blessed with an abundance of thriving, cultured female authors who were so close to the courts that they provided such unique insight. But let's not be fooled. The considerable amount of aristocratic perspective cannot compensate for the missing gap that we find ourselves lacking the capacity to fill. Much of the daily life of ordinary women in Heian Japan passed without documentation. However, this does not take away from the beauty of the literature we have from this period. Subjective, rather than objective, knowledge can be extracted from within these pieces of poetry and fiction. The internal focus is so ruthless that it manages to serve as a window into Japanese court life.