Matsukaze Post

The point of the play Matsukaze was to express the power of everlasting love on the mind and soul. In the play two fisher girls, Matsukaze and Murasame, were hopelessly abandoned by the love of their lives, Yukihira. The girls became infatuated with Yukihira when he was sent to Suma Bay out of exile. When at last he was allowed to return to the capitol he left the two girls heartbroken and hopeless. Later on when Matsukaze and Murasame learned of his death in the capitol they mourn for him until their own passing away. As the two girls reveal themselves to the priest as the ghosts of Matsukaze and Murasame the audience learns the two fisher girls continue to “pine”, long for, Yukihira even in the afterlife, to the point where Matsukaze even hallucinates seeing him. Lines 303-324 illustrate the two girls longing for the return of Yukihira as Matsukaze has a hallucination of him.

 Matsukaze: Oh joy! Look! Over there! Yukihira has returned! He calls me by my name, Pine Wind! I am coming!

 Murasame: For shame! For such thoughts as these you are lost in the sin of passion. All the delusions that held you in life, none forgotten! That is a pine tree. And Yukihira is not here.

 Matsukaze: You are talking nonsense! This is Yukihira! “Though we may part for a time, if I hear you are pining for me, I’ll hurry back.” Have you forgotten those words he wrote?

 Murasame: Yes, I had forgotten! He said, “Though we may part for a time, if you pine, I will return to you.”
 Matsukaze: I have not forgotten. And I will wait for the pine wind to whisper word of his coming.

 This passage best shows how greatly Matsukaze and Murasame long for Yukihira. The fact that Matsukaze has visions of seeing Yukihira easily displays the lust she maintains for him. Another notable part of the quote is when both girls repeat the words of Yukihira telling them that he will return to them if the pine for him. Both girls reciting the quote from Yukihira greatly enhances the sense of attachment they both still have for him.

 The point of this drama is that strong love and emotional attachment carries on into the afterlife exemplifying the phrase everlasting love. Since the love Matsukaze and Murasame have for Yukihira may have led to their tragic deaths, and the woe for Yukihira carried on into their afterlives, the author was trying to convey that not all love and obsession for someone is healthy. The hopeless love the two girls have will leave them eternally full of woe and grief as their lover will never return.