Study of a literati pine.

[treeman]

When I first saw this picture in one of my books I thought it was very rough and almost amateurish. Disordered branches etc.
The picture quality is poor but I'm sure you can get the idea.. The tree is over 1 metre high.

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Now It is probably my favorite example of a literati red pine. The tree was created by Kyuzo Murata.
What changed? The realization that to truly impart the feeling of a wild pine tree, First, the bark needs to be mature and more that mature bark extends into the branches the better. Second, the creation of this tree needed a great deal of restraint. There is no evidence of wiring, nothing forced, and a deliberate use of natural elements such as leaving stubs, even dead braches with the bark attached, or two branches coming from one point - but still knowing what to remove and what to leave to enhance the image.
A closer look below....

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Closer still....You cannot ''design'' your way to this. You need to let the tree grow and enhance it by removal of unwanted elements. At this stage, wire is out of the question. If you wire even one branch, chances are you will need to wire all of them. Wiring always results in curves (unless you use the wire to move the whole branch from it's base without bending it) but pine braches don't curve, (at least the kinds of pines that inspire me) The tips die and then the branch changes direction abruptly from a shoot further back. That results in the beautiful angular patterns you see in real pines. Most of my own trees have too many curves in the branches. It is hard to get them the way I would like them.

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The left side...

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The hanging branch....

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I would suggest that ''pads'' are the natural enemy of this style ( and most styles which seek naturalness) I believe giving this pine to Kamura or one of his disciples would see it completely ruined. After looking at this tree for some time, I'm calling it a masterpiece which few of the hundreds of other examples of bunjin red pine match. There is really no way to describe what this tree says. You just have to look.
Maybe take one or two of you spare you pines and try to use scissors only? See how long you can restrain your self from wiring. See what happens over the years..
Of course to quicken the aging, we need to feed less nitrogen, water less, repot less often and expose to all the elements. But that's the easy part.
What say youz?

[dansai]

I find it interesting that you initially (I assume years ago?) found this tree rough and amateurish, yet now can appreciate its inherant beauty. I found my first ever Bonsai book yesterday which is "The Art of Bonsai" by Yuji Yoshimura first published in 1957. It was essentially written to help Americans returning from occupied Japan with Bonsai be able to kept them alive. I have heard it has been citied as the origin of the "rules" of Bonsai as he outlines the left, right, back branch structure and triangle outline. What I found most informative when flicking through it again was the many pictures of Bonsai that are included and how many look "rough and amateurish" to the modern western Bonsai aesthetic. There obviously is wiring that has shaped many trees, but the highly refined, neat and smooth silhouette is nowhere to be seen.

As you have mentioned re the tree you have shown, the characteristics of age and working with the tree appear to be of much higher value in the artists consideration rather than making something neat. I even wonder if the artist would had a thought to chose one over the other. Maybe that is only something that we have to contend with in a modern western mindframe.

As to being reserved with my own trees, I have a small batch of JBP that I have grown slowly (through neglect rather than intent) and I recently had a play with a few. I have wired minimally, but no real curves as such as they are a bit stiff, and will endeavour to minimise, or leave off wiring on a couple to see how I go.

BTW, would love to know when the picture was taken?

[SquatJar]

Lovely tree Mike, many of Murata's designs continue to grow on me as I gain experience and education. Each time I browse his book I seem to find new appreciation, in designs I remember, and also find my self studying trees I have previously brushed over.

I am outrageously too inexperienced to be offering a critique of a masterpiece, but seeing as you posted it, what the heck??!? I love following the long slender trunk up and to the right, take in some of the beautiful branching structure top right and then down the stunning drop branch, but sometimes my vision gets pulled to the left and that's where it begins to fall apart for me, maybe I've watched too many design educational videos by bonsai professionals and have become indoctrinated but two things come to mind as to why this might be the case. 1) The spacing between the left foliage mass and the apex may be a fraction too far apart, maybe raising the back branch a smidge would add a little cohesion? 2) The foliage on the left is more dense than the apex, this not only adds visual weight but also feels a bit off as the tree is clearly growing to the right, so I imagine that would be the prominent sun direction and hence I would expect the apex on the right to be more dense.

I'm happy for you or anyone else to tear apart my thoughts

[SuperBonSaiyan]

I can appreciate the work that went into creating a pine like this but it's definitely not to my liking aesthetically.

I'm of the same mind as you were Mike, when you first saw this tree. I definitely don't think it's amateurish, but I do think there branches are a bit rough and disordered.

I like the taper in the trunk, and I can't tell by the pictures but it appears to have no visible scarring - I have no idea how to build a tree this tall with taper without lower sacrifice branches, so I can only assume it was done very slowly (sacrifices cut off before they grew too big to heal), or, the tree is just that old that is has naturally tapered.

I have a few pine seedlings that I'm going to try and "clip and grow" just to see what happens. I won't style then as bunjin as I'm not a fan of that aesthetic, but I am keen to create these sharp angular branches.

Maybe with time it'll grow on me, but thank you for sharing and inviting discussion. It's interesting to read how this tree appears to everyone else.

[treeman]

. 1) The spacing between the left foliage mass and the apex may be a fraction too far apart, maybe raising the back branch a smidge would add a little cohesion? 2) The foliage on the left is more dense than the apex, this not only adds visual weight but also feels a bit off as the tree is clearly growing to the right, so I imagine that would be the prominent sun direction and hence I would expect the apex on the right to be more dense.

This is exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about. When looking at a glance I see the same ''overly dense'' left part and that it looks ''too far removed'' from the rest. But is that just another pre-conceived idea that we learn? Isn't the unexpected exactly what we see in nature? Would thinning the left part of the tree and filing in the empty space make the tree better? If so why? There is no obvious reason or natural law that says we need to do those things other than our desire to make it conform to what is in our head. By doing that though, we remove the un-expected. I have not had much luck retraining my self from constantly balancing, equalizing, evening out and refining and I end up disappointed with I'm left with. I guess thinking about it is a start. But thinking too much is probably the worse thing to do! I once read that ''you don't make a literati tree, It just happens unexpectedly''.

[PWC]

If the intention of the artist was to make a Bonsai that represented a tree in nature and not a "bonsai" then he has been successful. Trees that have survived many decades tend to look unstructured as the environment dictates the direction of growth. There are many ways that you can grow your trees to try to achieve a desired out come and I agree with Mike that cutting rather than wiring gives a better result with the branch structure.

I have seen many examples of very old pine trees probably over 100+ years old when I lived in South Australia that this tree reminds me of. They were usually standing alone or small groups probably the remnants of windbreaks. That I think is what I like about Bonsai the ability to look and have it take you back to a time and place.

[TimS]

Definitely has some vibes of the radiata I see growing around the Seaford wetlands; ie styled by the elements

[treeman]

That I think is what I like about Bonsai the ability to look and have it take you back to a time and place.

Yes I think you hit the nail on the head. It's the desire to revisit a place we have been before even though it may be buried deep in our subconscious or even somewhere we have only imagined...

[treeman]

BTW, would love to know when the picture was taken?

I don't know. But I would guess not more than 20 or 30 years ago??

[Keep Calm and Ramify]

2) The foliage on the left is more dense than the apex, this not only adds visual weight but also feels a bit off as the tree is clearly growing to the right, so I imagine that would be the prominent sun direction and hence I would expect the apex on the right to be more dense.

I think there is probably a fair amount of foreshortening happening on that left area - 2D pictures can be very deceiving as anyone who photographs their trees soon discover (with frustration!) The bark tells the true story of age, especially on the branches, but the fluffy looking accent plant around the base gives me anxiety. Good looking tree - good discussion.

[SquatJar]

I think there is probably a fair amount of foreshortening happening on that left area - 2D pictures can be very deceiving as anyone who photographs their trees soon discover (with frustration!) The bark tells the true story of age, especially on the branches, but the fluffy looking accent plant around the base gives me anxiety. Good looking tree - good discussion.

I forgot to comment on the accent plant!
Again, as Mike mentioned above, this is likely just another preconceived notion, a side effect from viewing lots of bonsai trees in shows or on social media where the current trend dictates that a small, in pot, accent plant looks best planted to one side of the trunk and/or peeking out from behind. BUT never completely obscuring the trunk and never having left-right symmetry like this one.

It's interesting to regularly challenge these views as to what is good design, vs what is just a current trend. On one hand you could argue what is popular, is popular, because it is good. I don't believe that though, good design will stand the test of time, whereas something purely trendy will be laughed at, or worse, forgotten in the next couple decades.

[SuperBonSaiyan]

Here is how I would re-design the tree to make it evocative to me.

I don't know why exactly, but the left branch made the overall composition less appealing to me.

What do you like or dislike about my proposed re-design?

(Note, I'm new to bonsai, so I haven't really adopted a "style" as yet, so this is purely based on what looks good to me.)

I'd also leave the left branch as deadwood at first, and maybe remove it later if I don't like how it looks.

[treeman]

the fluffy looking accent plant around the base gives me anxiety.

[treeman]

Here is how I would re-design the tree to make it evocative to me.

I don't know why exactly, but the left branch made the overall composition less appealing to me.

What do you like or dislike about my proposed re-design?

(Note, I'm new to bonsai, so I haven't really adopted a "style" as yet, so this is purely based on what looks good to me.)

I'd also leave the left branch as deadwood at first, and maybe remove it later if I don't like how it looks.

Nothing wrong with your design but it takes it closer to other bunjin red pines. Therefore I personally would not do it.

[dmattar]

Here is how I would re-design the tree to make it evocative to me.

I don't know why exactly, but the left branch made the overall composition less appealing to me.

What do you like or dislike about my proposed re-design?

(Note, I'm new to bonsai, so I haven't really adopted a "style" as yet, so this is purely based on what looks good to me.)

I'd also leave the left branch as deadwood at first, and maybe remove it later if I don't like how it looks.

Nothing wrong with your design but it takes it closer to other bunjin red pines. Therefore I personally would not do it.

I would agree with this. Michael Hagedorn did a really good blog series on bunjin which I would essentially sum up as breaking basic bonsai convention - trees which convey age but have awkward balance, no taper, wild branching and very broad crowns relative to the trunk girth. A lot of tasteful bunjin also happen to have lot of sharp movement changes amongst the elongated trunk lines which cannot be achieved with wire.

I think a lot of pieces end up being too sweet and structured which detract from its overall aesthetic. It definitely is an acquired taste to appreciate a really good literati tree like this.

Tl;dr pretty much what you said in the opening post.