The Salt Gatherers Matsukaze and Murasame on the Beach at Suma

An example of Harunobu’s mature style, this print features elegant young women posing in a perfectly balanced composition. They hold buckets for drawing seawater to make salt, with one of them wearing a man’s eboshi hat. The women can be identified as the sisters Matsukaze and Murasame. In the original story from classical literature, the courtier and poet Ariwara no Yukihira 在原行平 (818–93) is exiled to Suma, on the coast far from the capital. There he meets two young brinemaidens (shiokumi 汐汲み), women who made salt from seawater. Ariwara falls in love with the sisters, calling them Matsukaze and Murasame. When he is pardoned and returns to the capital, he leaves his kariginu cloak and eboshi hat hanging on a pine tree as keepsakes for the sisters.