Jins are Rarely Pointed…
…in the wild, jins tend to have a cracked, blunted, or sheared-off look. Yet in bonsai we tend to the default, and whittle our dead branches to something so sharp a bird would be nervous about landing on them.
A photo I took in my garden this past week shows what I’m talking about.
This jin has never been touched with a carving tool. It’s not sharp, and it’s not really dull either, being eroded, frayed, and broken. This is also a pine jin, and pine does tend to create different jin than juniper—the comparison of which will be the next post’s subject.
4 Comments
You are right on the money, Michael. I’ve often wondered why I was so unimpressed with sharp pointed
jins and now I know why. Many thanks for pointing (pardon the pun) out the obvious
Wondered about all of the pointy jin that we create but do not see so much in nature. Thanks for the direction.
am trying to start doing some bonsai starting from “bonsai kit” .. i am new here 🙂 love all your photos and wiring the tree, I always was thinking “how this branch is growing like this.”
The bonsai kits can be a very slow way to grow one…if there are potted trees and shrubs available from a local nursery, that might be another good way to begin.