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Style form glossary

Formal upright 1

Black pine, chokkan: eleven years to a straight trunk

Informal upright 1

Trident maple, moyogi: the first structural wiring

Slanting 1

Crabapple, shakan: getting fruit to hold past November

Cascade 1

Trident maple in full cascade: growing against gravity

Semi-cascade 1

Semi-cascade Chinese elm: the angle that decides the style

Literati 1

Itoigawa juniper, bunjin: carving shari without losing the tree

Windswept 1

Windswept black pine: training a tree to lean into one wind

Double trunk 1

Double-trunk larch: making two trunks read as one tree

Clump 1

Clump-style Japanese maple: five trunks from one root

Exposed root 1

Dwarf pomegranate, neagari: exposing roots 8 mm at a time

Root over rock 1

Scots pine on rock: twelve years for roots to take hold

Forest planting 1

Zelkova forest planting: spacing five trunks on a 42 cm slab

文人木Style form

Literati文人木

Definition

A tall, thin, often irregular trunk with all foliage confined to the upper quarter of the height.

Tree records in this style form

Itoigawa juniper, bunjin: carving shari without losing the tree Chinese juniper, Itoigawa (Juniperus chinensis) · 1 Sep 2026

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