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

The thirteenth page of Matsubara's Hagoromo series may function as a coda or reflective closing image — the fisherman standing alone on the shore at Miho, or the pine grove returned to stillness after the tennin's departure. In the Noh drama, the aftermath of the celestial dance is a moment of quietude: the extraordinary has occurred and withdrawn, leaving the ordinary world unchanged in form but altered in meaning. Matsubara's handling of such a scene would likely employ spare composition, with broad areas of uncarved washi providing the silence that follows the play's central event. The boldly incised marks that define her figures throughout the series may here describe nothing more than the shifting surface of water or the texture of coastal sand. As a late page in the book, this image draws its meaning from accumulated context — the drama the reader has moved through page by page — and from Matsubara's sustained engagement with the intersection of literary narrative and printmaking.