Unlike Japan, America seems to have a bonsai community that looks to the accomplishment of making good bonsai more than being able to afford good bonsai and the cost of having a care taker for them.
I've posted this on another thread here, but this is my (well, not originally mine) contribution. It works quite well.
I looked at branch benders and found it hard to justify the cost a "real" branch bender when I couldn't foresee it being used anytime in the future, except for this one juniper (which should still be grafted over with shimp foliage). But, as we-uh-type and read, it is bending a good sized branch (extension of the main trunk) UP. I used a piece of rebar to slip into the drainage hole of the nursery pot to anchor the bender and used stainless steel wire (picture hanging wire) to tension the bender.