How to style Fuji Cherry stout octopus?

[Per PF]

I picked up this rather thick trunked Fuji Cherry/Prunus Incisa Kojo-no-mai at a specialist garden center this summer. (It had leaves at the time but now it's late autumn here in Sweden )
Excuse the bad photo quality..

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Questions:

In general - How would you style a bonsai with a rather short fat trunk and a bunch of octopus branches at the top like this?
(Find a leader and create a trunk line? Select a few branches to keep and incrementally build outwards like a sort of broom? Other?)

To be specific - How would you style a flowering tree?

Based on what I've seen of the species I think weak apical dominance seems fitting, but I'm open to suggestions.

The styling will be carried out starting next growing season and I'll take a bunch of cuttings in the process.

Cheers,
Per

[Akhi]

While I will let the experts chime in, in due course, I would go for a broom style for that tree, not the typical elegant one though but a stout Trunked broom. It already seems to have been growing like that so you might get to a reasonable bonsai shape in a couple of seasons even.

[shibui]

It is possible to make a single trunk tree but removing so many large branches close together will leave some large scars that will probably join together leaving one side of the trunk with a huge dead section. I have done it occasionally but by removing 1 or 2 branches at a time then another when the first cuts have started to heal so the process takes a number of years.

Flowering trees can be almost any shape. You just want a structure that shows off the flowers well for that brief window in spring.
I would also probably follow the path of least resistance and try for a broom style tree with this one.

Cherries in general are not particularly strong or resilient. They suffer from a range of pests and diseases down here and I guess you will have a similar range of problems up there.
Sanitize tools before working on it. I'd also seal cuts to deter some of the bacterial and fungal diseases that enter through pruning wounds. I avoid pruning cherries in winter. They seem to manage better with pruning while they are active when they can quickly close off wounds.

[Per PF]

Thank you for your answers and knowledge, I appreciate the input. A more gnarly broom style sounds like a good idea.

@shibui I appreciate the heads up about weaknesses. I've heard similar things over here. I'll give it a whirl

[Per PF]

Unfortunately this one didn't make it... I think it was the over wintering that weakened it and my spring repot killed the poor bastard.
We bought two and one's been grown in our flower bed/concrete tub. There was a significant difference in the number of flowers and leaves between the two this spring - with the pot grown pushing out barely a third compared to the other. I was concerned about the root health (and curious) since I felt a bulge in the bottom of the pot - and repotted even though it was clearly not super healthy. (The bulge was an ugly thin tap-root..)

At least it's flower bed brother is still lookin' beautiful! And hopefully I learned something...