mikawa yatsubusa japanese maple - in development

[WEI]

here’s my first japanese maple, a mikawa yatsubusa, after initial wiring and some detail work. i have to admit i really like sergio’s work on deciduous trees - this design was inspired in part by his kashima maple from suthin.

this tree’s previous owner had only used the clip and grow technique, which led to tight ramification, no wire scars, and an awesome start to this 9-year-old shohin. that said, after wiring, i plan to grow out the crown’s ramification and potentially add root grafts to balance out the nebari on the right (and maybe a thread graft to fill out the lower back?). there’s a bit of a bar branch in the middle, so i’ve bent one to fill negative space near the crown as well as lend a bit more dynamism to the frame. these things are brittle and prone to dieback with excess branch manipulation, but hopefully I didn’t go overboard. you can see some ugly wire work near the top, a reminder I should put more hours into polishing that skill.

composition-wise, i plan to repot soon and think the low, blue-brown oval by aiba koichiro will complement this tree through contrast. both spring-green and fall-red foliage will feature atop notes of muddy puddles - reflections of a clear sky after a rainy day here in the DMV area, where it rarely snows.

i already have ideas and the plant material for kusomono, so am currently in search of a tiny pot, jita, and formal stand to seal the deal. david knittle seems to do phenomenal work stands-wise, as does alex imbo, but open to other suggestions as well.

more pics to come as spring arrives early!

 

[MaciekA]

There is a distinct thinning and defoliation process for dwarf japanese maples (i.e. mikawa yatsubusa, sharp's pygmy, shishigashira, etc) to keep their herringbone budding / extreme density from yielding a leggy hollowed out canopy structure. I've been learning/training on this process at Andrew Robson's garden in the summer months. There's some subtlety to it in execution, but in a nutshell, the cultivar gives you much repeating density on its running flushes, and so you have to thin your way back strategically to space out the surviving nodes and actually work the density back a bit -- it's a ton of work on a very large tree and I'm glad my sharp's pygmy and mikawa yatsubusa are gonna be much smaller trees. I'm in trunk growing on both of those, but even at shohin scale I can see I'll have to do that dwarf maple style thinning / leaf reduction when I start working on branching.

 

[MaciekA]

Also: Great tree! Looking forward to following its development.

 

[MACH5]

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here’s my first japanese maple, a mikawa yatsubusa, after initial wiring and some detail work. i have to admit i really like sergio’s work on deciduous trees - this design was inspired in part by his kashima maple from suthin.

this tree’s previous owner had only used the clip and grow technique, which led to tight ramification, no wire scars, and an awesome start to this 9-year-old shohin. that said, after wiring, i plan to grow out the crown’s ramification and potentially add root grafts to balance out the nebari on the right (and maybe a thread graft to fill out the lower back?). there’s a bit of a bar branch in the middle, so i’ve bent one to fill negative space near the crown as well as lend a bit more dynamism to the frame. these things are brittle and prone to dieback with excess branch manipulation, but hopefully I didn’t go overboard. you can see some ugly wire work near the top, a reminder I should put more hours into polishing that skill.

composition-wise, i plan to repot soon and think the low, blue-brown oval by aiba koichiro will complement this tree through contrast. both spring-green and fall-red foliage will feature atop notes of muddy puddles - reflections of a clear sky after a rainy day here in the DMV area, where it rarely snows.

i already have ideas and the plant material for kusomono, so am currently in search of a tiny pot, jita, and formal stand to seal the deal. david knittle seems to do phenomenal work stands-wise, as does alex imbo, but open to other suggestions as well.

more pics to come as spring arrives early!

Nice job on this tree! Glad to see you reset its character by a full wiring job. You got some up and downs as well as a sweeping motion to the branches. So much more elegant and graceful than the before photo. In my opinion it is a mistake to walk away from wiring deciduous trees in the initial phases of development. You can always tell those trees that have been trained solely by directional pruning. They never look quite right to me. Is it a lot more work? Of course it is... a lot more! But bonsai is not for the lazy.

 

[WEI]

Nice job on this tree! Glad to see you reset its character by a full wiring job. You got some up and downs as well as a sweeping motion to the branches. So much more elegant and graceful than the before photo. In my opinion it is a mistake to walk away from wiring deciduous trees in the initial phases of development. You can always tell those trees that have been trained solely by directional pruning. They never look quite right to me. Is it a lot more work? Of course it is... a lot more! But bonsai is not for the lazy.

appreciate the styling feedback and commentary - I was aiming for a less constricted “tree with horizontal pads” vision, so I’m glad it moved that needle a bit. i hope the tree can pass for a formal display at the potomac bonsai festival later this spring. looking forward to the event regardless of whether it makes the cut!

and re: wiring vs not - though i think the “only clip and grow” is a fine school in its own right (lingnan style especially), it seems to work well only for trees where you want to convey a sense of fantastic size and age beyond that of most earthly trees. it’s also a great match with penjing compositions, which tends toward more whimsical, “unleashed” designs. i’ve really only seen the clip and grow styling technique executed to its full potential in china and taiwan.

 

[WEI]

There is a distinct thinning and defoliation process for dwarf japanese maples (i.e. mikawa yatsubusa, sharp's pygmy, shishigashira, etc) to keep their herringbone budding / extreme density from yielding a leggy hollowed out canopy structure. I've been learning/training on this process at Andrew Robson's garden in the summer months. There's some subtlety to it in execution, but in a nutshell, the cultivar gives you much repeating density on its running flushes, and so you have to thin your way back strategically to space out the surviving nodes and actually work the density back a bit -- it's a ton of work on a very large tree and I'm glad my sharp's pygmy and mikawa yatsubusa are gonna be much smaller trees. I'm in trunk growing on both of those, but even at shohin scale I can see I'll have to do that dwarf maple style thinning / leaf reduction when I start working on branching.

the density is both a blessing and a curse, and I suspected as much when I first saw this cultivar and thought it masquerading as a poorly-disguised cannabis

 

[MaciekA]

the density is both a blessing and a curse, and I suspected as much when I first saw this cultivar and thought it masquerading as a poorly-disguised cannabis

I was on the curse side previously, and almost got rid of all my dwarf cultivars cause I didn't wanna deal with it, but now I think it's a blessing. We can definitely make these work with the right techniques. I'm glad I kept my mikawa !

 

[dbonsaiw]

when I first saw this cultivar and thought it masquerading as a poorly-disguised cannabis

Hysterical. My neighbor still doesn’t believe my maples aren’t weed. Thankfully my Mikawa is little or else they would probably call the cops on me.

 

[Dabbler]

I love the little guy! - you did a great job, I've always been a sucker for shohin and mame bonsai

 

[WEI]

summer update: the average leaf on this tree is the size of a thumbnail! still some ways to go on building the apex.