Hi Dan,

I believe that either you have mischaracterized Mr. Kimura's sentiment or
the statment was taken out of context (or perhaps Mr. Kimura did not express
the fullness of his ideas on the subject). In any event, the polishing of
juniper bark is *not* done only because of the Japanese tradition based on
the quality of sand-scrubbed, coastline junipers. It is done also because
it is beautiful, the contrast that results can bring drama and emphasis to
the composition, it gets rid of the large strips of bark that can destroy a
sense of scale in the composition ,etc...

In other words, this is done for artistic reasons - many and varied ones.
Surely there are some who do it merely to copy the work of others, but this
practice should not define the general aims and effects.

Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
zone 8, Texas
www.bunjindesign.com/bonsai/


----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel Avrin"
I think that if you do this, you are negating one of the main ADVANTAGES
to
San Jose junipers as bonsai, namely the way they "bark up" quickly to give
you an aged look. San Jose junipers can easily look much older than they
actually are because of this. Why scrub the bark off? Kimura stated that
the only reason this is done so often in Japan is that many junipers grow
on
rocky coast lines there where the bark is often "scrubbed" by sand and
wind.
So, the Japanese style their junipers to match the way they often grow in
the
Japanese environment. If this is not true for your environment, you are
copying the Japanese style and not nature. Better to style your juniper
towards it's strong point than to it's weakness. FWIW.
Best Regards,
Daniel Avrin

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