Sometimes you need to learn from the great masters and just ... cut it all off

I have heard this story several times and it fascinated me. So when I got the details from Boon I could not keep it to myself and decided to post it. Both Juan Andrade and Ryan Bell helped with putting this together, so here goes a story of a Chinese Quince after it won a Kokufu prize in 1986 (Kokufu 60) the way Boon put it:

“Triple trunk Karin. It received Kokufu prize at Kokufu 60. Mitsuya was the artist who worked on it. It was sold. Several years later it was sold at the auction in 1997. My teacher's client bought it. In Feb 1997, my teacher, Mr Kihachiro Kamiya repotted it. In March, I assisted him. He cut every branch off leaving stubs to regrow new branches. About seven years later, it was shown again at Kokufu. It looked bigger and more compact. It has been a great experience to see the progress. I still visit and work on it several times after my teacher passed away in 2004.”

1986

2004