Ryan mentioned that the John Naka’s tree that he worked on in tonight’s stream appears in Bonsai Techniques part II. Browsing the book, the tree that most resembles it is in figure 13 (page 6). If so, the image below is what Naka had in mind for the future design.
If it is indeed the same tree, over time what is now the back was the front and the tree was also tilted 90 degrees and the entirety of what the foliage in the tree is now came from what was the defining branch then whereas the whole trunk up that was then is what creates the defining branch is now.
Anyways, I may be totally wrong but this the closest tree in the entire book as far as I can tell…
I find the deadwood distracting in the drawing. The trident or Fleur-de-lis appearance takes my eye away from the powerful base and foliage design.
The Naka tree is definitely a more feminine design! The nursing of a very sick tree to be a tree that is running foliage and massive juniper berries is very impressive in my eye. I would like to know more of the first three years at Mirai to better understand the magical resurrection! the image from the gallery shows details of the dead wood. California Juniper No. 2 | Bonsai Mirai
Hi all!
I was able to show Ryan this image at the end of the stream last night and he was blown away! It seems that Ryan had not seen this sketch, so when he saw the similar way in which he had handled this juniper, he felt that Naka’s vision was followed through. We will see you all next Tuesday for the part 2 final styling on this tree!
-Eve
The photo of the tree Ryan is working and the one from the book have to be two different trees. The trunk on the real tree and the drawing are way too different. The current tree has way to massive a trunk today to have grown that much even in 30-40 years in a pot.
