Styling a white pine
One of the last trees I worked on at Aichi-en last fall was a mid-sized white pine. My styling guidance was simple – I was told to make the tree look nicer. Beyond that, Mr. Tanaka told me not to cut too much. Cutting large branches can trigger vigorous growth and one of the primary goals for refining white pines is controlling vigor and keeping needles short.
I began by removing the old needles and a few small branches before I started wiring. I began with the first branch and worked my way up from there. About half way up the tree, I was unhappy with my progress – I thought the tree looked funny. At this point, Peter Tea mentioned that Mr. Tanaka often focuses on the angles of the main branches. The main branches weren’t making me happy, and Peter strongly encouraged me to go for it, so I spent about a day lowering the main branches where I wanted them. Before long, the smaller branches fell into place and I was done.
Done enough, anyway. Once I was relatively happy with the tree, I had Mr. Tanaka take a look. Here are shots of the pine before I started work and after I finished.
Front – before |
Front – after |
Mr. Tanaka got to work quickly and began with the first branch. He spaced out the foliage creating a wider, and flatter, branch pad. I liked it. He then reduced a branch in the front of the tree which exposed more of the trunk. Beyond that, Mr. Tanaka made many minor adjustments and finished by lowering two of the main branches and removing a fairly large branch on the right side of the tree – a change that’s barely noticeable in the photo. The change that most intrigued me concerned the apex. It now stood upright and pointed in the opposite direction, creating more movement near the top of the trunk. Here is the tree as adjusted by Mr. Tanaka.
After Mr. Tanaka’s adjustments
Left side
Back
When he was finished, I handed him the camera which allowed him to flip between photos of his work and mine. The comparison entertained him as it did me. He flipped back and forth between the two images for several minutes, repeating, “omoshiroi, omoshiroi” – omoshiroi being the Japanese word for both fun and funny.
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Before Mr. Tanaka’s adjustments |
After Mr. Tanaka’s adjustments |
My work was somewhat conservative compared with Mr. Tanaka’s. I figured it was easier to remove branches later than to grow new branches after making misguided cuts. Now that I’m back in California, the decision’s all mine – to cut or not to cut – and not cutting means I have more to wire.
A really full black pine
The Japanese black pine below was one of the many great trees I saw in the workshop during my visit to Aichi-en last fall. I caught Peter Tea cleaning it up for the sales area at Gomangoku. You can see a before photo on Peter’s blog.
What made the tree stand out to me? The fullness, the health, and the density of shoots were impressive, and the bark and roots were also very good, but above all, I appreciated the silhouette of the tree. Solid blocks of foliage can do a great job defining a tree’s character.
Good balance between the left and right sides of the tree, a clearly defined key branch – the lowest branch on the left – and a window in the foliage that reveals the trunk are all conventional markers of good pine bonsai.
Japanese black pine – front
When we look at the tree from the side, we can see that it “leans” strongly forward. Put another way, the apex lies in front of the center of the pot by a significant margin. This feature is common among pines in Central Japan, but I don’t see it as much on pines, or other trees for that matter, in Northern California.
Right side
Left side
The foliage in the back of the tree was solid and dense.
Back
Despite the tree’s beauty in this state, it was only intended to look this good for a short time. Normally, far more needles are removed in winter. Last I heard, the tree sold at the show but remains in the care of Aichi-en where it will continue to develop.
Bay Island Bonsai’s 13th Annual Exhibit!
If you are planning to be in Northern California this weekend, I strongly encourage you to head over to Bay Island Bonsai’s 13th Annual Exhibit at the Lakeside Garden Center in Oakland, CA. The event promises to be a good time. It’s our first exhibit in the location and we’re really looking forward to it – come join us!
Unconventional branches
Every once in a while I see interesting bonsai with extra-interesting features. One of the more common is the extra-long branch. A white pine that fits this description caught my attention at last year’s Taikan-ten.
White pine – 2011 Taikan-ten
The first branch shoots straight out and then rises up, providing the tree’s primary point of interest. At the photo shoot for the 2012 Meifu-ten, trees with similar features caught my attention.
Satsuki azalea – 2012 Meifu-ten
White pine – 2012 Meifu-ten
Not long after noting the white pine above, Peter Tea and I turned around and spotted the pines below.
Garden pines
Clearly, something’s up here. The question in my head today – what role do extra-ordinary branches play in bonsai? Do they add spice to bland exhibits – or are trees better off without them? Peter does a good job plumbing the issue in his recent post on The Strange Trident Maple.
I was on the fence about whether or not to call attention to the primary branch on the pine below until I realized it pretty much emerges below the start of the nebari at a bold 90 degree angle. More food for thought.
White pine – 2012 Meifu-ten – what would you do with this tree?
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.
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