The Literati/Bunjin Thread

[Mike Corazzi]

Literati MAYBE ??
This is the son (or daughter) of a JBP pine I had in the old house. It sprouted and I dug it and have kept it. The "style" now is... zip.
I keep "seeing"....or HOPING to "see" a literati in it.

What think?

Last pic is an "idea" I made with the one branch jinned and carved short and the other gone.

 

[SantaFeBonsai]

Western Juniper in a Byron Myrick pot.

 

[Tidal Bonsai]

This is the only surviving of three Pitch Pines that I attempted to rescue. They were hit by work truck that pulled over to work on a telephone pole.
First styling this fall

NJ Pride!!!

 

[Hartinez]

Western Juniper in a Byron Myrick pot.

View attachment 266779

Hey now. That is a lovely composition you’ve got there.

haven’t styled this one yet. Will wait till next year, but the foliage is there and I’ll get bendy when it’s time. JUNIPERUS Tolurosa

still not convinced I need to keep both trunks.
The initial thought.

 

[Mike Corazzi]

Western Juniper in a Byron Myrick pot.

View attachment 266779

I'm suddenly getting an idea for the branch I was going to jin...maybe.

 

[n8]

Hollywood juniper in progress.

 

[Hartinez]

I hadn’t seen this thread pop in a bit, so I thought I’d give it a little bump. I’ve got some ideas and trees gaining vigor for future work. One is this shimpaku with long trunks in a clump style that has similar appeal to this image from the book “literati style penjing”

if you post, don’t forget a pic!

 

[Hartinez]

This San Jose I think needs just one more strategic branch removed and jinned to be more convincing. I think the bottom left will do. That and a suitable pot.

 

[Colorado]

Ponderosa Pine

 

[Marlborough Handcraft]

@Colorado forgive my ignorance, but is that a wedge cut for the 90 degree bend, or did you cut off the leader and work a side branch.

 

[Colorado]

@Colorado forgive my ignorance, but is that a wedge cut for the 90 degree bend, or did you cut off the leader and work a side branch.

That bend is courtesy of Mother Nature

 

[Underdog]

Update from earlier in this thread. Broken Branch Pottery pot holding a TX Cedar Elm

 

[Shogun610]

Future Literati Pinus Echinata
Future Literati Lodgepole Pine

 

[Yamabudoudanshi]

Curious what you guys think of my Bunjin'esqe JWP? I think most Japanese wouldn't hesitate to call it a bunjin, but I find the Western interpretation a little more narrow. I find that for me it's kind of bunjin and kind of slant looking, but I'm not sure which category it fits in best.

What do you guys think? Bunjin? Slant? Both? Neither? Any further styling suggestions? Next repot, I'd love to get it into a nanban style pot. Foliage is a little heavy, but the longer needles on this cultivar (ishidzuchi) king of lend themselves to this look.

Pictures are only a year and a half apart, but I'm happy with it so far.

 

[Potawatomi13]

Curious what you guys think of my Bunjin'esqe JWP? I think most Japanese wouldn't hesitate to call it a bunjin, but I find the Western interpretation a little more narrow. I find that for me it's kind of bunjin and kind of slant looking, but I'm not sure which category it fits in best.

What do you guys think? Bunjin? Slant? Both? Neither? Any further styling suggestions? Next repot, I'd love to get it into a nanban style pot. Foliage is a little heavy, but the longer needles on this cultivar (ishidzuchi) king of lend themselves to this look.

Pictures are only a year and a half apart, but I'm happy with it so far.

Too much foliage for literati/too little, too high for slant. Continue on course for Literati. Forget amateurish jar lid nanban pot, get real Literati pot actually worth price paid. As alternate pot could have child make genuine amateur pot or make ones self.

 

[Marlborough Handcraft]

That bend is courtesy of Mother Nature

Mother nature was kind to you then! Looks great!!

 

[badatusernames]

maybe? for now? i was mostly just letting it grow tall for girth but

 

[Dragon60]

Recently I've taken a liking to the minimalistic literati style. This is my most 'minimalistic' - a wisteria that's 18+ years old. Obviously it's leaning over a koi pond with large rocks nearby. Currently it's 31 inches tall but I'm aiming for 40 inches (about 100 centimeters).

 

[Yamabudoudanshi]

Wanted to revive this thread.

Here's one I recently bent up and potted that started life as a more or less straight itoigawa shinpaku whip that is probably 3-ish years from a big cutting. I was inspired by these shohin/mame size bunjin shinpaku I saw at Shuga-ten this past year. I can't remember which nursery brought them, but they were great.

Was an excellent opportunity to play with some more advanced bending techniques.

I'm really happy with the movement I got in the trunk. The bends are 3 dimentional and are interesting from basically any angle. I'm thinking the left lower branch (old apex) will eventaully have to go, or be brought around to fill in the rear. As it stands, it looks too balanced to me, and the branch clashes with the jin that I made in that spot.

The last picture is a virtual of what I mean. What do you all think?

 

[Dragon60]

I used to think this slant/literati style tree was an ash but recently realized that it is a Wild Black Cherry. When I originally collected it, it was 10+ feet tall. I chopped it down to about 20 inches and no less because I liked the slanted curve that it had. This also allowed it to retain the lowest branch. The other branches have grown since then. This past week I repotted it bringing out much of the large tap root (I liked the way that looked). It just started leafing out about 10 days ago. So far the leaves have been fairly small and hopefully stay that way. My understanding is it may unexpectedly lose branches so we'll see how that goes.