Untitled

Suzuki Harunobu

ca. 1768 · Woodblock print; ink and color on paper · Asian Art

This print is an excellent example of Harunobu's artistic taste—reflecting nonsensuous tenderness and exquisiteness of figures. Casting off her sandals, a young woman has climbed onto her maid's back to break off a branch of a plum tree growing over a tall wall with a tiled ridge. The two women are elegant and gentle despite their tomboyish behavior. The rigid and monotonous pattern of bricks in the fence is a foil for the graceful figures. Despite Harunobu's depiction of these two young women as innocent, the expression "plucking a branch of plum blossoms" typically refers to a fashionably dressed female and even carries sexual overtones. The young woman wears a kimono (furisode) with hanging sleeves and a design of snow-clad bamboo. Her elaborately tied obi, or sash, has a scrolling floral pattern.

Artist

Suzuki Harunobu

Date

ca. 1768

Medium

Woodblock print; ink and color on paper

Culture

Japan

Department

Asian Art

Credit line

The Howard Mansfield Collection, Purchase, Rogers Fund, 1936