A Goyomatsu with a inhabitant.

Here is another Goyomatsu i could style.

As you can see the tree needed some heavy bending in the first 3 branches , the branches needed to go more down to create a more natural and old looking tree.

 

How did i bend it?
Because it wasnt easy to use the jack at this position , i used a towel to protect the bark and put a iron barn on it , attached the branch and the iron with wire and bend the branches down.
After i thought i was on max that i could do , Fukita-san said they had to go much lower and if a small crack would appear between branch and trunk it wouldnt damage the health to much.

So i did.

 

After the bending i wired the tree and look what i found , the trees inhabitant a little frog.
It stayed there untill i had to wire the head of the tree and got scared , jumped and gone he or she was.

When i was finished the tree looked like this...

A 800 year old yama Shimpaku shaped by Fukita-san

Fukita-san had to style the oldest tree at Shunka-en , a 800 year old shimpaku yamadori.
So i could help Fukita with removing all the old foliage, prepare raffia , wrap it on branches that needed to be bend and wire the tree and help with the shaping.

this was the tree before.

After , the position was changed to have better movement, better sight at nebari and play between lifevein and deadwood.
Many branches needed to be bend down more.
The head was made out of 2 big branches , one of them we bend down.
The first right branch had to be bend more to the front.

 

 

Fukita-san is the first apprentice of Kunio Kobayashi, he started his study when he was 16 years old, 30 years ago and now has a Bonsai garden in Sendai.

I also learn a lot techniques from him when he comes to Shunka-en to help out.

Picture of him will follow later...

 

Interesting deadwood technique on a Goyomatsu

Next tree i worked on was this beautiful Goyomatsu.
The bark is nice of this one and it had a beautiful hollow natural shari at the bottom.

At the top it had some shari to , to make this more interesting it was hollowed out with a knobcutter.
But the problem now was that this looked very un-natural.
So i asked how we could solve this problem?

so with kind of grafting knife you follow the lines and you reapeat this many times.

 

This is the result so far, it looks much better... but to make it work the deadwood still needs time and weather elements to make it more natural.

 

 

 

 

After the wiring and shaping could begin.

It's important to have a clean wiretechnique with as less as possible wire on the branch.

Important thing is when you shape branches is to follow the lines.

 

 

And here is the end result.

 

 

 

 

The journey is what brings us happiness not the destination

So i've been back from 3 Months of Japan after a while now.
It was a short time but i learned so much and not only about Bonsai but also life.

Before there wasn't much i understand fully, i may have thought i did.
However as the last year passed in my life, i know that my views were clouded by what i thought i knew.
Rather than the experiences and revelations which come to a life consciously lived.

breaking free from all the misconceptions we have and living in the moment,a moment that is rich with all the things we think are missing and in actuality are present in every heartbeat,so close and in our face that most of us miss it.

Like family and friends, have laughs and great moments, passion

And for most of us Bonsai-enthousiasts this is also Bonsai.
Cause for most of us it's a passion and addiction.
We also meet and make new friends and have great conversations and fun with them, help eachother out,enjoy other bonsai,...
These are great important things.
Unfortunatly there are always the people who think different but it are things you will see in every convention in Europe.

So for me there is no destination in Bonsai, it's the journey: the new friends you meet , every tree you touch , see evolve and enjoy of it, the places it will take you and the new friends you meet , that makes me happy.
And Peter Warren is one of the persons in europe who i think lives up this way,although he works a little to hard!
But has great passion for Bonsai, great talent, wisdom and technique.
I always have great laughs with him and learn a lot from him where im really thankfull for.

Anyway... Here are 2 Japanese white Pines i did the first days i was at Shunka-en.

The first one is a Kabudachi(raft style) Bonsai.
The thing i had to do was use as less wire as possible and every branch can´t have more than 2 wires on it. To make it look as profecional and clean as possible.

2 trunks had to be wired and bend with a guywire to see all the trunks and to follow it's flow.

there were to many branches in the head and the head was too thick , not easy to place and not in right position so had to cut it.And used a smaller branch to create a better head.

The end-result.