Dance of the Beach Maidens

Torii Kiyonaga

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Although Narihira's story became a literary work in the ninth century, no textual record of his elder brother, Yukihira, is known before the late fourteenth century, when the famous playwright Kanze Zeami used the legend of the exiled courtier as the basis for a Noh drama. The tale of Yukihira was subsequently reworked in many different forms. In the early eighteenth century, the playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon created it as Matsukaze and Murasame, to be performed in the puppet theater. Later, his version of the play was performed as a Kabuki drama. Finally, the motif of the unfortunate sisters was extracted from the plot and choreographed as a dance to be performed between acts of unrelated plays. This performance, The Dance of the Beach Maidens, is represented here. The topic has undergone a considerable change from the historical source in the legend of Yukihira; indeed, the existence of the exiled courtier is not even implied here. Instead, the focus is on the two sisters, who have become Edo-period goddesses, far removed from the impoverished girls of the original legend. In fact, in his pillar print, Torii Kiyonaga has seen fit to take the sisters away from Suma Beach and locate them at the foot of Mount Fuji.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art