Thanks for the new feature BNut. I am always happy to salivate over photos from Yahoo Japan auctions. Darn shame that it would be illegal to have some of those plants shipped to the US without going thru customs and quarantine, would not want to bring the dreaded pine wood nematode back to the US after we stupidly sent it to Japan after the end of WWII.
Anyhow in my opinion Vance hit the home run with the first at bat on this one. I can agree with everyone that it does look like a nice JBP trunk adorned with JWP branches, and a good job to boot. I am fascinated with the notion of taking a nice stump and deciding where the branches will go, completely ignoring what is currently on the tree. I would like to see this used more often as I see nice trees that have branches far too large for the finished tree, or branches that ascend the trunk that are nearly the same caliper.
I can't say much about this tree, the base is spectacular, perhaps a bit too spectacular as I can't stop looking at it. I would consider trying to plant it a smidgen deeper so that the base seemed to be a bit more in proportion with the rest of the tree and not sitting under the tree like a circus freak (sorry if we have some circus freak members, did not mean to offend you).
Thanks again!