THTR1170 Study Guide - Final Guide: Kimono, Henrik Ibsen, Life Insurance
11 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Play Summaries
Matsukaze
- Playwright: Kan’ami
- Major characters: Spirits of Matsukaze, Murasame; traveling priest; villager
- Plot summary: One autumn evening, a traveling monk visits Suma Bay (near Suma Ward in
present-day Kobe City). He notices on the shore a pine tree which seems to have a mysterious story.
When he asks a villager about the story, the villager tells him that it is a grave marker for two young
diver sisters, Matsukaze and Murasame. After the monk recites a sutra and prays for the comfort of
their souls, he decides to ask for lodging at a salt-making hut and waits for the return of the owner.
Then, two young beautiful women, who have finished working under the moon, taking water from
the sea, come back to the hut with a cart.
- The monk asks them for accommodation for one night. After they enter the hut, the monk recites
the poems of Ariwara no Yukihira, who had some tie with the place, and explains that he has just
consoled the souls of Matsukaze and Murasame at the old pine tree. The women suddenly begin to
sob. Asked the reason, the two women reveal their identity: they are the ghosts of Matsukaze and
Murasame, who were loved by Yukihira. They tell their memories of Yukihira and their love with
Yukihira which was ended by his death.
- The older sister, Matsukaze, wears Yukihira’s kariginu-style kimono and eboshi headdress because
she misses him so much. Indulging herself in the memory of her love, she eventually becomes partly
mad, takes the pine to be Yukihira, and tries to embrace the tree. Although Murasame tries to calm
her sister, Matsukaze burning with love passionately dances and continues as if expressing the
passion of her love in dance. When day dawns, Matsukaze asks the monk to offer a memorial
service for the one who is suffering from the obsession. The two divers then disappear in the
monk’s dream. Only the wind traveling in the pine trees is left, singing like the sound of a passing
shower (Murasame).
- Class Notes:
- Pine tree = symbol of No and of Japanese culture; represents longevity
- Wind - transitory, ephemeral; salt water = corrupted form of something that
cleanses; moon = enlightenment; reflections = inversion/backwards, memory
- Matsukaze means wind/pines
- pines= longevity
- wind= something that is fleeting
- Matsusami means “autumn rain”
- Autumn play, sad play
- Salt of the sea in the tears, symbolizes non-pure
- Theme: lack of enlightenment; M. and M. were promised all sorts of lavish
clothes and things of that ilk when the courtier returns; attachment to worldly
good prevents them from achieving enlightenment
- Longevity of the memory
- Reflection of moon in saltwater symbolizes girls won’t ever reach enlightenment
- Attachment to worldly goods is detrimental to enlightenment
- Intended audience = upper class, samurai class
