Feeling Pain Through Matsukaze

According to the text, the Japanese texts revolve around the feelings of the cast and their experiences during moments of emotion, and Matsukaze incorporates these as expected.  The plot follows a woman named Matsukaze as she experiences the pain of great loss.  Now, many of us will experience heartbreak like we see Matsukaze go through during this writing, but it's interesting to see the way the author decides to frame these feelings.

Classical Japanese drama evolved into a very formulaic entity, with plots that usually focused on one of five different entities.  These include plays praising the gods, plays about warriors, plays about women, plays about madness or spirits, and plays about demons according to our text.  Now, many people may think that because a woman portrays the main character that Matsukaze's classification falls under the plays about women category, however, I believe it's classified as a play about demons.

Throughout the play, the characters complain about how life has lost its meaning without their beloved Yukihira.  They speak of their agony multiple times, and even say in line 250 "Our sin is deep, O priest. / Pray for us we beg of you!"  Their love for the man obviously troubles them so much that they find it a religious issue that someone could cast away from them.

Also we see, beginning in line 286, Matsukaze take the symbol of this man they once loved and put it on herself even though she knows it isn't the right thing to do.  The text says:

     I hung all my hopes
     On living in the same world with him,
     But being here makes no sense at all
     And these keepsakes are nothing.

     I drop it, but I cannot let it lie;
     So I take it up again
     To see his face before me yet once more.

     "Awake or asleep,
     From my pillow, from the foot of my bed,
     Love rushes in upon me."
     Helplessly I sink down
     Weeping in agony

And after this soliloquy of sorts she then gets thrown into a climatic fit of madness, referred to by the chorus as a "gale howling through the pines" in line 348.

All of this behavior implies demonic possession, at least by today's standards.  She treats the clothing of her lover as holy and she acts strangely when she wears it, along with crying out to a priest to cleanse her of her sin that's become such a thorn in her side.  The author portrays all of these behaviors relating to Matsukaze's love for Yukihira in a bad light, leading us to arrive at the point that this love is a sin.

According to the author, the heartbreak that comes from love is just too much to bear and causes people to break into demonic states of unrest. Because of the relationship between love and demons nobody should fall in love by any circumstances.