BVF's photo is one that came from the yard of Mr. Ebihara in Japan. I'm not sure if I shot that image or Boon, Jonas or Sam Edge perhaps. Regardless, the man was a retired engineer who had taken it upon himself to design a process for creating nebari on Japanese Maple and Zelkova that was unrivaled. His technical skills were unmatched even in Japan. The closest grower is perhaps Jonas' favorite, Ooishi:
http://bonsaitonight.com/2009/03/19/ooishi/
You can argue that the look is good/bad/unanural/perfect but what you have to acknowledge is that Ebihara and Ooishi are people who know how to create what they want with a plant.
To add to BVF's instructions:
"Graft, prune, plane, spread, repeat" is a good start. But Ebihara used every technique that you've ever heard of when working with JM's, and probably a lot that nobody else knows about. Here are some I know he used:
- Growing the trees attached to a board (screwed from below)
- arranging every single root at repotting using nails, chopsticks and wire on top of the board.
- Pumice below, akadama and sphagnum above. Fence of mesh around to prevent roots from running, causing more wood production near the nebari. This technique requires diligent watering as Ebihara's apprentice, Jun attested to. Hot summer days meant constantly circling the yard with a hose. The roots are confined to an ideal growing environment that is very small.
Ebihara explaining some techniques to our group in 2008:
A shot of the fence technique, the bottom of the pot is pumice, the top is akadama and sphagnum moss:
I uploaded a set of the images from 2008 to my Flickr stream, unfortunately many of them were shot on the wrong color setting and I no longer have the raw files to correct it (long story):
https://www.flickr.com/gp/28643050@N06/759zWG