Jin and Shari
Andrew EdgeThey will instantly imbue a sense of age to the tree and help the artist to portray this. In saying that jins and shari can also be overwhelming and distracting so finding a balance between too much and too little is key.
Jin and Shari are usually synonymous with coniferous trees. As they age branches succumb to death as apical dominance, severe weather and (sometimes) human interaction causes the resource pathways of a tree to change resulting in branch death or partial trunk death. These natural occurrences happen a lot in our native trees as well, with the eucalyptus and angophora often showing jin and shari.
A jin, simply put is a dead branch which has had its bark partially or fully removed and now has the heartwood exposed to the sun and is usually bleached a whitish colour. A jin can be a small stub or a long piece of deadwood. Shari is a dead portion of the trunk which has had the bark removed to show the heartwood of the tree. The live veins of the tree will grow around the shari and sometimes (depending on the species) grow completely back over the dead piece of trunk so as to minimise the risk of disease infection through the wound.
Trees from National Bonsai and Penjing Collection, ACT
Both jins and shari are an integral part of juniper bonsai as their white colour provides the contrast between the red colour of the live vein and the green of the foliage that is so highly valued. All coniferous bonsai can benefit from the addition of jins and shari's. They will instantly imbue a sense of age to the tree and help the artist to portray this. In saying that jins and shari can also be overwhelming and distracting so finding a balance between too much and too little is key. On pines for example, their soft wood usually rots to leave small stubby jins that continue to desiccate and eventually form ‘uro’s’ or hollows in the trunk. Juniper and taxus on the other hand have a very high resin content in their heartwood if the tree is very old, and this results in their jins being longer and much more durable to the elements. Creating jins on younger branches will usually result in the loss of that jin over time as there isn’t a high enough resin content in the branch to sustain it.
Once the decision is made to form a jin, cut around the base of the branch with a sharp knife, encircling the branch to ring bark it. Then use your jin pliers to squash (not too vigorously) the branch which will see the bark come away from the heartwood. Remove the stringy bark from the jin and then sculpt with power tools or by hand using carving tools.
Shari's are just as easy to make. Use a sharp knife to cut out the bark on the trunk longitudinally, making a longer cut than wide. Don’t make a shari under a branch though as your likely to sever the life line to that branch. Shari’s are often used in conjunction with a jin to enhance the effect of the dead branch running into the trunk.
Trees from National Bonsai and Penjing Collection, ACT
Once made on a fresh branch I will usually leave the jin/shari alone to face the elements for six months to ensure the sap has been withdrawn from the area. After this time the jin is treated with 100% concentrated lime sulphur using a paint brush to apply. Try not to touch the live vein of the tree. Once treated the wood will be yellow but this will change to white after a few days. Some artists will use a few drops of black sumi ink to lessen the white colour to more of a grey which is a more natural colour and not so vibrant. Depending upon the tree, reapplication will need to be every year, usually in winter. For some trees like privet or lantana, every six months may be necessary to prevent further rotting of the deadwood.
While shari’s (and uro’s) are not uncommon on deciduous trees in nature they tend not to be utilised in bonsai cultivation as much. In Japan it is a sign of growing perfection to have a scar less and unblemished trunk. For others the sight of a big hollow or a shari is a natural look to an old deciduous tree. Which ever path you choose, let your artistic preferences decide for you and have a go at one.
