Another twisty Shimpaku

[Shibui]

Lots of strong new shoots on this twisted Shimpaku so I decided to cut back a bit before the inner shoots get weak or die.
I've been procrastinating with this one for a couple of years because it looks good from both sides.

Even though you only have a few 2D shots to work on, I'd be interested to hear what you think about the relative merits of either view.

Side A
before trimming:

after reducing the foliage and unnecessary branches



Side B
before

after

 

[Brian Van Fleet]

I like the movement the trunk shows with the tree facing right; side A. Side B seems a bit more conservative/classical. 2 good options, probably easy enough to style with both fronts to choose from, depending on which way you need movement in a shohin display.

 

[RJG2]

I think I agree with Brian. I prefer the trunk twisting away, then towards you, with side A.

But I do really like the deadwood visible with side B.

Tough one.

 

[Michael P]

The dead wood makes me favor side b. I wish the upper piece of dead wood was a bit larger.

 

[Shibui]

Thanks for the opinions so far. Your ideas are the same thoughts I had when working on this tree.

Trunks are still quite flexible, mostly thanks to previous bending, so it's still possible to play with trunk and branch placement.
Dead wood is still very much in development so still possible to add more to be visible from side A.

I will let it recover and harden a little then wire all existing branches to see what that looks like.