Farewell

Farewell is part of Matsubara's Saru (Monkey) series and, by its title, suggests a composition built around departure or parting between two figures — a recurring emotional register in her animal subjects, where gesture carries the narrative weight. The print likely pairs two monkeys in postures of separation, perhaps a turned head, a raised hand, or a body oriented away from another, with the negative space of the washi sheet doing much of the compositional work. Matsubara's mokuhanga technique here would rely on bold, decisive carving rather than fine line, with the baren-pulled impressions retaining the texture of the block grain and the irregularity of hand-printing. As a sosaku-hanga artist, she is the sole maker at every stage, a discipline visible in the unity of carving rhythm and ink density. Within the Saru series, Farewell exemplifies Matsubara's interest in attributing interior life to her animal subjects, drawing on a long Japanese tradition — from Choju-giga onward — of monkeys as vehicles for human emotion and reflection.