Plucking a Branch from a Neighbor's Plum Tree. Artist: Suzuki Harunobu (Japanese, 1725-1770). Culture: Japan. Dimensions: 10 3/4 x 7 7/8 in. (27.3 x 20 cm)medium-size print (chu-ban). Date: ca. 1768.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 flor