Wiring a large Japanese black pine

As summer growth hardens on Japanese black pines, the time comes to pluck needles, cut extra shoots and wire branches that need moving. I recently worked on the black pine below with Boon Manakitivipart at the Shinpukuji Temple near Okazaki in Aichi, Japan.

Black pine in Fall

I’m used to doing fall work on Japanese black pines, but I’m not used to working on very large trees. To avoid moving the tree, we worked on it in the garden, standing on beer crates to reach the top branches.

Extra needles removed

After spending a day removing old needles, we got to work wiring. It was sunny and nice when we started the work, but it rained the third day.

Boon setting branches in the rain

We pulled a few of the main branches down a bit. We added a screw to a large root to anchor two of the guy wires.

Anchor for guy wires

We shortened the main branch on the right and created a small jin. We used this jin to pull remaining branches toward each other.

Many wires

Here’s the completed tree.

Wiring complete

Happy in the rain!

Stay tuned – plenty more pics from Japan coming soon!