This scene shows part of the process of pickling plums, in which salted plums are sun-dried outdoors in late July and early August. The overall bright, vibrant palette evokes the brilliant midsummer sun beating down, and in the scene many plums are laid out on a straw mat in a garden where three girls stand. The artist Kenzo Noguchi was born in Gamo-gun (present-day Higashiomi City), Shiga Prefecture, and studied Western-style painting at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. Japanese Western-style painters of the day had deep admiration for Europe and the United States and many aspired to study abroad, but Kenzo returned to his hometown after graduating from art school, and continued to paint the scenery of his beloved Gamo highlands for the rest of his life.