The story of this juniper chinensis owned by the company “Franchi Bonsai” begins in 2012.

Here is the tree before being worked on for the first time:

The first thing to do is the cleaning of the bark and vegetation and the subsequent application of jin liquid. The result is the highlighting of the living vein that wraps on the long thin trunk. The position is completely horizontal and in my opinion does not highlight the beauty of this juniper.

Here is the plant after cleaning

The most interesting point is definitely the tight curve on the trunk where live vein and dry wood have a twist of almost 180 degrees.

I always imagined to uplift the plant in order to place this curve at the top and make a bunjin style bonsai.

From the careful analysis of the nebari I realized that raising the plant would be difficult if not impossible: the wood is quantitatively smaller than the trunk and the bulk of the root system is positioned on the wrong side compared to a possible vertical positioning of the trunk.

…and so, if it is not possible to lift, I thought to go the opposite way!

Vertical kengai!

Here is the plant in 2014 after repotting.

Over the next two years the plant is allowed to vegetate freely.

In February 2016 it was time for the first processing.

Here’s the plant after cleaning.

Detail of vegetation and nebari

Only one of the three branches is pruned and I decide to manage the two remaining branches as if they were two trunks.

Here is the final result:

Front

Some details of the foliage

Live veins and dead wood!

Detail of the curve on the nebari

Details