My last large tree - Itoigawa Juniper

DAY ONE

After my large die off of most of my small trees and well over half of my large trees, I told myself "Self, no more large trees, they are just too big to handle."  I decided that I would do the workshops on Shohin and concentrate my energies towards developing the best Shohin I can make. So, the decision was made, and I had every intention of keeping that decision, till I got back from Europe. I had a couple dollars left over from the trip and decided to make a trip out to Ed Clarks. The rendezvous had just happened while I was in Europe, and I didn't get to make this one. I looked at all the videos about the event and paid special attention to the rising stars competition. I looked at the junipers used in that competition and felt that they must have come from Ed, still I did not know for sure. I asked around, and most said that they felt that they had. I looked at the material and wondered what I would do if I had such a chance as to make a tree from scratch with a large piece of material. So, this is the monster I chose. It's in a twenty-gallon nursery container and the trunk is about 3.5 inches across. From the top of the container is about 3.5 feet in height.

While out at Ed's, he showed me this cool pair of branch pruners. Battery operated, and powerful as all get out. They will cut a 1.25 inch branch with a pull of the trigger. It will also take your finger off even faster.

So, the first business was thinning. This took several hours of pondering, cutting back branches that I knew I wouldn't need, but what to keep with respect to jins. A juniper without deadwood is well.... just a juniper. The view below is my chosen front, though at the time I did not know it yet.

 This is the back.

This big branch in the middle of the tree had to come off. For my front, it wasn't going to work in the composition.

Still thinning and still working with what would be the back.

 

I start thinking about the apex and how I will handle that. The trunk moves up from the base and for all intents and purposes remains fairly thick up to within the top third of the tree. It is here that a large branch that is part of a wye that splits off from the main trunk. I have to pick one or the other because I do not, repeat "do not" come from the camp that a tree can have multiple apexes. I have seen a few that work but for the most part they always seem to look like someone could not make a decision or did not have enough confidence in their ability to pick one or the other. 

I cut these supports from PVC and ABS pipe. I can wire the trunk to the support tight and not worry about the wire making a constriction and causing a swelling in that area due to possibly being tied for two or more years.

Still the back of the tree and I try different places for the support to go to tie it off to the trunk. Most of the bottom of the trunk has been cleaned up at this point with major branch choices made and where they will go.  

At this point the tree is looked at with fresh eyes and new things start to develop. Somehow the trunk looks better from the other side with more thinning.

Now we start working on the other side. More thinning and more branch selections.

Dead center two thirds the way up, is the other half of that wye that I had to contend with. It is reduced a lot and thinned by jinning and thread pulling the wood.

So now the support is wired to the trunk, and the apex will be pulled into position with some clamps.

The top of the tree is thinned at this time, and all the branches are prepared with 3.5 and 3 mm wire. Many are bent into shape.

The bottom of the trunk has larger dead branches at the bottom that had been cut back by Ed years ago. I jinned them and thinned them to get a better view at the bottom.

So, this was the end of day one. All the branches have wire except just a few at the very top of the canopy, I was tired and just ready to go in for the day

DAY TWO

Now all the branches get detail wire. I just feel that if you're going to wire a tree, wire it, ALL OF IT.

I have a thin piece of Styrofoam that I use for backdrops but forgot to use it on the before shot.

I remembered on the after shot and it is easy to see how much better the foliage looks when all of it is wired.

Here is an ugly branch end that at this point I have to keep just to keep the branch alive till the foliage start to grow correctly and I can cut it back.

The same branch end after wire. It looks so much cleaner and organized with proper wire.

The tree all detailed and wired and cleaned up. I cut the can down to work on the Jin's at the bottom of the trunk. I decided to cut the Shari between two Jin's on the trunk. It takes the better part of three years for the water pipes to start to develop on each side of a Shari. The foliage on the top third is so much better than the bottom two thirds. Of course, this is due to the fact that most of the bottom foliage was shaded out from the huge canopy that obscured most of the trunk. A couple of years will be needed to get the bottom portion caught up with top but, lots of water and fertilizer should help that along.

BEFORE AND AFTER

 

 

The journey of Phat Bastard

2022

 Unloading this phat bastard facilitated the use of a wheelbarrow to move it around, just the weight of the fat roots sticking out of the can weighed 20 pounds. Ed Clark grows his material much differently than he used to. Lots of his large stock like this was grown in the ground. All the way in the ground, no can. This becomes a problem when selling time comes around, especially in early summer when people are looking for new material, and the grower did not remove the right things from the ground and transfer them to a can to sell. Second problem is the grower now also loses his growing phase cause now it's in a cramped can and can no longer stretch out and grow. The answer is growing in large cans allowing the roots to escape into the ground. This allows the plant to take full advantage of the earth and being easily severed away from the ground allowing the sale. If not sold, growing is not lost due to the whole growing year lost before it could be planted back in the earth.

This material was not short on branches. It was loaded.

Hard to imagine what I saw in it ehh...

My initial cuts take place. I already had a shape in mind when I saw it in the ground. It had massive taper and the top looked like it could melt into a pretty good apex with careful pruning.

2023

The tree went thru its repotting in the Spring. Branches grew like crazy. I did not get any shots of the base of the tree upon removal from the nursery can, but it had to be cut off with a sawzall. This large cream glazed oval was purchased from Japan and has been used since planted in it 2023

Wondering what the plastic canvas is for? Me too. Nah... It's my hairbrained scheme for pulling down branches without wiring them directly leaving wire scars when they get missed.

The plastic canvas just guides the branches on a downward trajectory without wiring each branch. Once the branch has set I can begin the wire process. Notice how large the leaves are. This is due to the tree growing rank for years. The internodes were large having far fewer leaves. They have to be large when there are 75 percent fewer leaves. Over the next few years, the leaves have dramatically reduced.

This is at the end of the season. The leaves are already half as large, and the apex is starting to grow well.

The tree at this point is 15 inches tall with a 7 inch base.

2024

Spring and the tree looks pretty good. That huge trunk coming out of the soil in that big pot is pretty imposing.

By Fall of 2024 the tree had grown many branches and the temptation to cut back is tempting. I allowed them to elongate to about 18 inches before I cut them to get some girth on the branch as the eye moves up.

2025

Spring 2025 and the new leaves have reduced again. Now they are about the size of a nickel. Nice size for a trident leaf, especially on a tree this large.

Still 2025 but this time I took pics of the repot. This is the tree out of the pot and the roots cut back.

The larger roots that were high on the trunk were cut off. I trimmed a little more of the root mass back. This year I have watched many videos from Bonsai Q. Very good channel and top-quality work. Every once and a while they screw up and they all laugh and I like that. Keeping it real, we all screw up. What I notice on that channel is that whenever they work on a trident maple and there is repotting involved, the roots are taken back to about a 1/4 inch long from the trunk. This is very scary, but the plants always seem to respond, and the next video shows the plants the next year with a full crop of leaves like nothing ever happened to it. I didn't take it to 1/4 inch, but I am taking them back much harder that I have in years past. Time will tell if I am Kanta or not?

Now this new pot is 4 inches in length shorter than the previous boat. This pot is 17 inches in length versus 21 for the other. It was good for growing the tree and setting the structure. Now I can concentrate on building better branching.

The tree is still 7 inches across at the soil line. 

The tape says 21 inches tall, but I stuck the tape in with no soil and so if I subtract for the soil the tree is about 18 inches tall. Three inches taller than two years ago.

The new pot is just shy of 17 inches across. The old pot was a full 21 across and about 4 inches tall, but still about the same inner depth as the new pot.

 A lot more soil than this pot can hold. I can tell because when I was done it weighed half as much to carry back to the bench than it did when I carried it to the bench. This new pot is 3 inches tall.

About the pot. The pot is an exhibition grade Yamaaki pot from Japan. I purchased it thru a Japanese auction site. The description stated that it had been used in a prestigious Japanese Exhibit. Since it has no documentation to that fact, I can only take their word for that. Who knows which "Japanese exhibit". 

In the pictures below, I have shown the chop from Yamaaki, for Toshio Kataoka, son of founder Akiji Kataoka.  So far, I have seen that and can find that everywhere on the net.

What follows is the nail inscribed signature. The first two lines next to the chop (stamp) are everywhere on the net. This signifies that this pot was pressed by the master. Other third generation Yamaaki pots with only a stamp can be pressed by apprentices within the factory. Pressed, meaning the clay slabs are pressed into a plaster mold. On this one, the flower motif is in the mold and clay is pressed into it to capture the design. On my pot there are three signature lines. I have seen this before from Japan on pots built for special occasions, like prestigious exhibits and things like that. Maybe it captures a date, or the exhibit, or location. This particular pot was fired in 1989 according to the auction notes.

Here is a similar pot signature from Micheal Ryan Bell's official chop resource. Just the two signature lines.

This is a cut corner rectangle I found on the web with the same design pressed into it.

Here is the bottom of same pot with two signature lines.

This is one more pot from the net with a very clear signature, but just the two lines. Now I am really curious as to what the third signature line says. I have not seen one on the internet, and this after looking at what seemed like two hundred pots at many different locations, from collections to selling on eBay or auctions. 

Here is a shot of the tree planted in the new container with the old larger container for comparison. Quite a difference

2026

The beauty shot for 26 since I am finishing the text on New Years Eve.  The new smaller pot captures the sumo quality in the composition very well, I think.

I was able, after looking at another hundred photos of Yamaaki pots, to find this one with the triple signature on the bottom. It just so happened that this pot was on a web site that also had some information on the signatures on the bottom of the pot.

Shosen-yaki (常山焼) primarily refers to a style of high-quality, traditional Japanese ceramic bonsai pots, often made in the famous Tokoname region, known for classic shapes, rich colors (like brown), and the signature "Shosen-yaki" stamp, usually from makers like Yamaki (Yamaki-Zo), used by serious collectors for their aesthetic appeal and suitability for bonsai display. It's a mark of craftsmanship, not a type of food or grill (despite the similar-sounding yaki meaning 'grilled'), but specifically for fine pottery used in the art of bonsai.

Key Characteristics:

Craftsmanship: Authentic, often handcrafted in Japan.

Material: High-quality ceramic or clay.

Appearance: Traditional designs, unglazed or glazed, often with a distinctive rim or band.

Color: Common colors include rich browns, purples, or natural clay tones.

Marking: Features the signature "Shosen-yaki" or "Shosen-yaki Yamaki-Zo" stamp.

Use: Specifically for displaying bonsai trees, appealing to enthusiasts and collectors.