Working toward the Kokufu-ten in February of the following year, we continue the wiring and Styling / Shaping of a Shimpaku Juniper. In May, at the height of the growing season, fine Copper Wire is used to guide the branches with care — avoiding splits — while the work looks all the way ahead to autumn growth and the final adjustments just before the display. It is, in every sense, a work of preparation.
While wiring the branches, what I see is not only the tree as it stands today. The weight of small branches filling out in autumn, the silhouette of the Shimpaku Juniper as it takes its place on the display stand after passing through winter — all of that 'time not yet arrived' is folded into every decision I make today.
Styling / Shaping for Kokufu-ten would normally begin two or three years in advance. This time, circumstances make that impossible. Accepting that constraint, and then carefully building the best possible approach within it — that intention runs quietly through every part of this work.
When guiding the First Branch into position, I place it just a little lower than the finished form calls for. Branches naturally rise through autumn — I choose today's angle by reading that movement ahead of time.
During the growing season, branches are full of upward-drawing energy, and trying to move them all at once with heavy wire risks splitting. So I use fine Copper Wire, guiding slowly and in stages. In the space between the urge to hurry and the care owed to the tree, the choice of tool reflects how one approaches the tree.
There is intention behind wiring only partway along a branch. By leaving the tip and its small branches free, I allow the tree's natural upward energy to work. Rather than fixing everything completely, I leave room for movement — deciding where control ends and freedom begins, in conversation with the tree.
The wire used for guiding will be removed before the display. This is a temporary hold, not a final result. When you realize that today's work is a 'preparation' for February, the meaning of that care becomes clear.
The finer small branches are intentionally left in place this time. Cutting now would bring the tree in front of me into order. But those branches would not be able to fill out properly by autumn.
I wait for growth, and leave the final adjustments for early autumn. The fullness that greets the display can only deepen through waiting. The more you rush toward completion, the further completion recedes.
The Shimpaku Juniper is growing even at this very moment. How to read that growth, where to leave room, and what to decide today — working with three time horizons held in mind at once. In Styling / Shaping toward a display, questions like these quietly layer over one another.
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