Matsukaze (Scene from the Tale of Sisters Matsukaze and Murasame) 

This work was made when Yasuda Yukihiko was 22 years old. By then he had established a study group, Kojikai, in which he and other young Nihonga (modern Japanese-style painting) artists conducted enthusiastic research into historical paintings. The group also exhibited together, and for an exhibition in 1906 they selected Noh as their common theme. Yukihiko chose a scene from Matsukaze, a play of the Mugen Noh genre (which generally deal with a dream or the supernatural). Depicted are the ghosts of two ama diver sisters that a traveling monk meets. The pair recall with great sorrow having once been loved by the poet Ariwara no Yukihira. In the Noh, the older sister Matsukaze begins dancing wildly in despair, while her younger sister Murasame attempts to calm her. In this painting, the expressions and poses of the pair sitting in the darkness are depicted carefully, as though to focus the viewer’s attention on their tortured hearts. An upturned bucket on the beach enhances the sense of realism, as though the ghostly sisters are actually present.
(UCHIYAMA Junko)