Styling a Shimpaku Juniper in preparation for an exhibition. After three years, the front face is changed — the balance of the Jin becomes the starting point for resetting the angle, unwanted branches are removed, and the work moves into Wiring. Without rushing toward completion, this is a day spent choosing the form that truly suits the tree at this moment in its development.
There is a front face that was established three years ago. The Crown and the flow of the branches have all been developed with that front in mind. Today, we let it go.
The deciding factor was the Jin. Too assertive — that alone was enough to overturn three years of work. Three years ago, choosing the front was already a difficult decision. There is no single right answer when it comes to selecting a front. Knowing that is precisely what allows us to release something once built. Not clinging to a finished image. Looking at the tree's potential from an angle not yet explored. That was the starting point for this day.
Before the Wiring begins, the finished form already exists in the mind. Which branches to work together, where to place the scale of the First Branch — everything is already drawn as a three-dimensional shape before the hands move.
When the image is still vague and you reach for a branch, every decision becomes hesitation, and the work falls apart into fragments. You can only move because you can already see the tree's form. Deciding the scale of the First Branch first — that sets the proportions for the whole tree, and becomes the point from which the upper branches fall into place, one after another.
Drawing branches inward, shortening those that reach forward. Checking from the front, keeping things progressively shorter toward the top. This discipline shapes what it means to be a Shohin Bonsai.
The branches on the inside — the ones hardest to wire — are the most precious places of all. Resisting the impulse to remove them, finding a way to let those small branches live. The careful attention given to what is hard to see quietly supports the richness felt when looking from the front. Perhaps that is what it means to say the back holds up the front.
Working within the deadline of an exhibition, the choice is made to keep two First Branches. Knowing that narrowing it down to one would be better in the long run, volume takes priority for now. Walking the path toward an exhibition means aiming for the form that suits this stage. Not reaching for completion, but finding the best shape within the time this tree is living through right now.
Creating space between branches, taking care that wires do not cross, gradually shaping the dome of the Crown. Layered decisions accumulate, and together they form the work of this one day.
Three years from now, this front face may change again. Even so, today's choices are genuinely etched into the tree. That is how bonsai deepens, quietly, alongside time.
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