Parody of the Salt Maidens

The love of two peasant sisters named Matsukaze (Wind through the Pines) and Murasame (Rain in the Village) for the Heian period (794–1185) aristocrat Ariwara no Yukihira is the same subject painted here and in Isoda Koryūsai’s triptych of the three lovers. This diptych represents a variation of the story. On the left, Toyokuni has shown us one of the sisters, simply dressed for the heavy task of carrying her buckets of salt water to the small hut on the beach behind her where ascending smoke indicates the brine is being boiled down to produce salt. But on the right, he has painted a courtesan, her hair carefully pinned and combed, and her long obi tied in front. She is hanging a painting in a tokonoma, an alcove for displaying hanging scrolls found in many Japanese homes. The subject of the painting is a pine tree on which are hung a man’s court robe and formal hat, the same mementos left behind when Yukihira departed from the two sisters he loved to return to his place at court.