Becoming ‘Furu’ 振る
In 2013 the original styling was performed on a Japanese Red Pine that got acquired by an auction. - Despite the overly expressive movement, the original front was relatively uninteresting. The decision was made to flip the tree around and utilize the shari on the backside of the tree.
The original angle lacked movement at the base, so the tree also got raised up on the left side and brought slightly forward. Although this added some dynamism to the bottom portion of the trunk, it also unfortunately accentuated the tree’s thin base, This new angle created a “pigean-breasted” effect. To eliminate the both of these issue a guy wire was used to pull the upper portion down and to the rear.
The rear was also guy wired forward and the top third of the tree was wrapped with rafia to avoid major cracking during bending. The final result is a much smaller tree that can show now be classified as chuuhin. The original style of Furu was completed.
‘Furu’ - 振る translates to the verb ‘shake, swing, wave’ which is an appropriate name to the dramatic movement of the tree.
