Eric visits Jay McDonald's bonsai workshop in Marin County, CA to witness the creation of a Tanuki bonsai. In Japanese, "Tanuki" is the word for a Japanese raccoon dog and in Japanese folklore, Tanuki were believed to be mischievous shape-shifters or tricksters. A tanuki bonsai is created by joining a living tree to an interesting piece of deadwood - a trickster bonsai!
00:00:53 "Finding a fabulous piece of wood is paramount if you're going to go through all this trouble" of creating a tanuki. Jay continues to explain that tanuki is fun and a great way to increase bonsai skills. Sure, it's cheating; but Jay loves that with tanuki, anything goes.
00:01:56 Close-up of a Juniper growing up through deadwood.
00:02:32 Piece of deadwood with prep work complete. Preview of placement of Juniper.
00:03:30 Deadwood clean-up and wood preparation.
00:04:25 A wire wheel eliminates green algae which is important before putting lime sulfur on the deadwood. Lime sulfur is used to lighten the color of deadwood, and have it appear bleached and aged.
00:05:00 After the wood is prepared, Jay recommends misting it with water so it's lightly moist before applying the lime sulfur. This speeds up the time it takes the wood to turn white.
00:06:07 The next step is to use a nail gun to attach the juniper to the deadwood. Jay offers a tip to minimize stress on the Junipers roots.
00:07:30 After potting the tanuki, it's important to give the juniper time to rest and grow.
00:10:19 Jay looks for Shimpaku junipers that are about 10 years old, 2-3 feet tall, that can still be bent and manipulated into a channel carved into the deadwood.
00:11:37 Jay explains another method for creating tanuki with a cork bark pine.
00:12:32 A few old branches solve a reverse taper problem and enhance the cork bark's composition.
What do you think? Is Tanuki really taboo, or is being a trickster worth the effort? Let us know in the comments below. Thank you for watching! Please like and share this video.