Artist: Utagawa Sadahide [歌川貞秀] or Gountei Sadahide [五雲亭貞秀] (Japanese, 1807 – c. 1879)
Signed: Gountei Sadahide ga [五雲亭貞秀画] in a beige ‘bark’ cartouche
Publisher: Tsuruya Kiemon (鶴屋喜右衛門) (enterprise, c. 1620 – 1898); Marks 22-066 | 553m
Date: early 1840s – no date seal, no censor seal
Media: Aiban yoko-e uchiwa-e (団扇絵), color woodblock print, 233 x 304 mm
The composition is set against a coastal landscape, featuring a large pine tree and the two maidens carrying brine buckets on shoulder yokes, dressed in layered red and patterned robes. The background includes stylized waves, flying plovers, two sailing vessels, and a pink-hued sky.
Matsukaze and Murasame were sisters who lived as brine-gatherers along the shores of Suma Bay. Their story is immortalized in the Noh play Matsukaze (松風):
The exiled nobleman Ariwara no Yukihira (在原行平) stayed in Suma and fell in love with them. After his departure, the sisters mourned his absence, with Matsukaze in particular losing herself in longing and madness. The pine tree (松, matsu) symbolizes her unfulfilled love, as matsu also means “to wait” in Japanese.
Suma Bay (須磨浦, Suma-ura) is a coastal area in Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, located along the Seto Inland Sea (瀬戸内海, Seto Naikai). It is historically significant and a prominent setting in classical Japanese literature, particularly in The Tale of Genji and The Tale of the Heike.
