Page from Hagoromo (Feathered Robe), Shôwa period, circa 1984-1986

This page from Matsubara's Hagoromo series likely renders the celestial maiden mid-ascent — the landscape of Miho receding below while clouds gather around the ascending figure. In the Noh play's concluding passage, the tennin is described moving through layers of sky, past Mount Fuji, and ultimately out of mortal sight. Matsubara's handling of this visual terrain would emphasize the transition from solid, carved earthly forms to open, atmospheric passages — the gradated [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) technique creating a sky that seems to absorb the figure rather than contain her. The composition may place the figure in the upper register of the page, already partially dissolved into the print's background tone. As part of an artist's book, this page functions as part of a sustained sequence building toward resolution, each page turn contributing to the sense of the drama's temporal unfolding. The integration of [washi](/glossary/washi) paper and hand-applied pigment gives the ascent a material quietness appropriate to the Noh tradition's restrained aesthetic.