With a thirty-year-old Shimpaku Juniper, the work of creating Jin begins. Weakened branches, branches concealing the trunk — which to cut, which to keep as Jin. Jin Pliers and blade in hand, the front and the tree's form still undecided, a dialogue between hands and tree gets underway.
Even with the pot in front of him, the front is not yet decided. 'The image becomes clearer after the Jin is made' — and with that, his hands begin moving toward the selection of branches.
If 'design' means picturing the finished form first and then working toward it, this is something different. As the hands move, the tree gradually speaks. The shape of a bonsai, I think, emerges through a back-and-forth of questions and responses.
Creating Jin is not a matter of 'making' a dead branch. It is the act of drawing out the inherent strength of the material the tree already holds within.
With Jin Pliers, the fibers are lightly crushed and the bark is peeled away. Press too hard and the wood itself is damaged — only the surface, and only lightly. In April, when the tree is drawing up water, the bark comes away cleanly. The hands follow what thirty years of age have carved into the wood.
Before peeling, a Notch Cut is made first — deciding in advance how far the bark will be removed. This one extra step determines the refinement of the Jin.
Weak, elongated branches are difficult to use as design elements. When they are kept as Jin, the practical reason and the aesthetic reason converge. Rather than discarding them, they are given a different kind of expression — and there lies the way of the Shimpaku Juniper.
When a branch that had been concealing the trunk is removed, an interesting movement in the trunk is revealed. The decision to perform Jinning is also a matter of choosing what to show and what to withhold. Which branches to keep, which to turn into Jin — those answers determine the tree's form.
The length of the Jin is left deliberately long at first. From there, the design is gradually refined. Imagining various forms in the mind, facing the tree, closing in little by little — the words 'extremely difficult' are not, I think, mere modesty.
The right answer is not yet in anyone's hands, and this tree, too, continues to grow as it is questioned.
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