Kyokko Yatsubusa training, round 2

This corker came from Don Blackmond in 2008, and has been reduced in height once, wired once in 2011, and mostly left to its own devices over the last 6 years. I liked the height, but the tree lacked character and the appearance of age.

I considered shortening the tree some more, and accentuating the bottom-right branch by removing the left ones, and working the trunk more toward the right as well, as suggested here:

In the fall, I got to work…

Removed all of the wires:

Now…ready to work:

Yatsubusa means multi-budded, so unchecked, the tree sends many small buds each year. To be honest, I left this tree to its own devices far too long, when I should have cleaned it up once or twice a year, even if I was t planning to do more with it. A peek from below shows how congested this tree had become over the years.

And the same branch after cleaning it up by removing small shoots, old needles, unnecessary extension growth, and downward-facing needles:

First branch or two wired:

Inserted rebar to serve as an anchor point to move the upper trunk:

After the work:

A shot from fall ’08 (that’s a card table as the backdrop):

And from fall ’14:

Who knows…maybe one day that first right branch will go too…what do you think?

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