Omoshiroi red pine forest
“Omoshiroi” means “funny” or “interesting” in Japanese. It can be used to convey respect or mockery – which makes it a useful term for bonsai.
During a Bay Island Bonsai workshop hosted by Daisaku Nomoto, I brought in a red pine forest I’d grown from seed. Nomoto found the grove to be omoshiroi. He took some interest in the forest, insisting that I bend two of the trunks down and remove a large branch from the main tree. He wasn’t concerned about the unorthodox character of the composition or the lack of taper – the forest was omoshiroi. I asked if I should wire the rest of the branches – Nomoto didn’t think they needed it. The branches didn’t need a lot of attention because carefully detailed branches wouldn’t match the unusual trunks. I thinned new shoots to one pair per branch and removed the old needles.
Red pine forest – before cutback
After cutback
I’ll wire a few of the main branches when I decandle later this spring. It looks like this forest might be my best candidate for next year’s BIB exhibit, but it’s too early to tell just yet. I’ll know more in fall when the summer growth fills in.
Styling a Japanese white pine
The first tree I worked on at Aichi-en was somewhat unusual. The second tree I worked on made the first tree look easy. From a distance, the white pine looked unremarkable.
Japanese five-needle pine – front
The tree’s exposed roots were covered by foliage in the front, but easy to see from the back.
Japanese fine-needle pine – back
After looking closer, I realized that the foliage hid the tree’s true form. The trunk had been bent down until it crossed itself.
The tree’s apex crossing the trunk just above the roots
I didn’t have a clear idea what I’d do with the tree. “Very unusual tree,” Mr. Tanaka said with a big grin. I smiled and thought, “great.” As I did with the first tree I worked on, I began by removing the old needles. This gave me a chance to size up the tree and make a plan. Here it is after I removed the old needles.
After removing the old needles
Before I started wiring, I made a case for shortening the apex where it crossed the middle of the trunk. Mr. Tanaka said to go ahead and cut it. Next came the wire.
For the first bend, I placed a screw directly into the trunk near the top of the tree and pulled it down using stainless steel wire. This made the tree more compact. I then wired the remaining branches, making a few cuts along the way. Here’s the tree after the initial wiring.
First pass – wiring complete
I wanted to make the apex smaller and I wasn’t sure about the lowest branch on the right, but I kept it to see what Mr. Tanaka thought. I had bent the branches enough that I didn’t want to tweak the tree anymore and I passed it to Mr. Tanaka for final adjustments. He removed two of the branches, one near the apex and the lower right branch, and then reset the rest, keeping the silhouette and basic style roughly the same.
I picked up a styling tip by watching Tanaka set the branches. He tended to bend the main branches way down, and the smaller branches out a bit. This made the tree a bit more compact while keeping nice branch pads. Here is the tree after Tanaka made these changes.
Styling complete
Because the tree is so unusual, I’d be curious to see how it looks several years from now. If it’s still at Aichi-en, I’ll be sure to get pictures.
Preparing trees for show
Late fall through early winter is show season in Japan. Depending on how many trees a bonsai professional has to show – or sell – October through February can be a busy time. Within just three weeks, I helped with trees bound for four different events. Show preparation can entail anything from needle plucking to repotting to detail wiring. And once show trees are ready to go, work begins on the sale trees.
My favorite task during the season is show wiring. On several occasions, I’ve been given a tree and told to make it look pretty without using heavy wires. Depending on the tree, this can be a confounding task. The first tree I worked on was a cascade black pine.
Japanese black pine
After removing old needles and trimming a few long needles, I began tweaking the branches, most of which were wired last year. I quickly realized I didn’t have a great idea of what I was trying to do so I let Mr. Tanaka complete the work on the tree. When the branches were set, I oiled the pot and applied moss to the surface of the soil. Here’s a photo of the finished tree.
Japanese black pine – show prep complete
The next tree I worked on was a large black pine with long needles. The tree was in good shape, but stray needles and branch pads that lacked definition detracted from the overall look of the tree.
Black pine – before
I began by removing needles that grew at undesirable angles – usually downward – and wiring a number of small branches to better define key branch pads. When I finished, I had Mr. Tanaka take a look.
Happy with the result
Tanaka tweaked a few small branches and added a guy wire – for the most part, subtle changes. Here’s how the tree ended up.
Show prep complete
Sometimes simple tasks can make a big difference. The deadwood on the white pine below was quite dark before I treated it with lime-sulfur.
White pine with lots of deadwood
I also plucked stray needles from a large white pine bound for Taikan-ten.
Needles plucked – getting ready to add moss
On the other end of the spectrum, some trees were wired from bottom to top. This isn’t normally done just before an exhibition, especially ahead of shows like Kokufu and Taikan-ten. The practice can, however, be acceptable for regional shows – especially if the tree’s owner requests it.
Mr. Tanaka and Peter Tea working late to finish wiring a large white pine
The show prep that really caught my attention was the work that went into an old multi-trunk trident maple. The first step involved removing all of the leaves.
Mr. Tanaka removing old leaves
I would have thought this job wouldn’t take a long time, but when there are hundreds of leaves on hundreds of branches and great care must be taken to avoid breaking branches, the task can take a surprisingly long time. It’s a perfect job for Mr. Tanaka, a third-year apprentice at Aichi-en who by coincidence has the same name as our oyakata.
Once the leaves were removed, Mr. Tanaka pulled out an electronic toothbrush and scrubbed the branches with water to remove green build-up wherever it appeared.
Electric toothbrush technique
So many branches
The result was a beautiful trident maple. Some moss and an oiled pot completed the work, and the tree looked great at Taikan-ten. I’ll post pics of these trees as exhibited before long.
A twisting black pine
The back pine below appeared on the turntable and I was asked to make the tree “more beautiful.” What an unusual tree!
Twisted pine
Before looking very closely, I immediately got to work plucking old needles. That gave me a chance to study the tree and let me put off figuring out what to do with it. Once the tree was clean, Oyakata – Mr. Tanaka of Aichi-en – asked what I wanted to do with the tree. I said I wanted to make it more compact and wanted a tiny bit of foliage to poke out on the right side. I thought about doing that by bending the top part of the trunk to the right. That would have the effect of undoing the final curve in the trunk. Tanaka suggested that I think about bending the trunk even further to the left. If the tree is funky, go with it, he said. Sounded great to me. I haven’t done a lot of heavy bends on black pines so I had fun wrestling branches with bare hands and jacks to get it into shape.
Stainless steel guy wire
This opened up quite a few cracks along the branches. I was told they’d heal just fine, so I added cut paste and moved on to the next bend.
Openings in the bark after making a severe bend
Before long, the branches were covered with screws and wires.
The result of bending the trunk 4″
Guy wire with screws
Jin
Branches wired
When I finished positioning the branches, Tanaka spent a few minutes pointing the branches upwards and moving them closer to the trunk. I had positioned the braches farther apart and pointed the buds outward. Why make the change? Mostly to improve the tree’s silhouette.
Wiring complete
It was 10:30 p.m. when I finished working on the tree – about 12 hours in the workshop. What a fun way to start a bonsai vacation!
Here are some shots of the tree from different angeles to offer a better idea of how twisted the thing is.
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Front – before |
Front – after |
Right – before |
Right – after |
Left side – before |
Left side – after |
Back – before |
Back – after |
I’ll be curious to see how the branches withstand the big bends. I’ll ask Peter Tea for a photo if the tree’s still around next year.
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