To Clip or Not To Clip

I'm not sure how I feel about this whole 'making nature more beautiful' thing the Japanese have with their gardens, but there's no doubt they know their way with pruning sheers, and can make something quite lovely with them. The Japanese word for trees in a garden is Niwaki; however, it is also a word describing the sculpting of trees, and it gets used for all sorts of other plants, all of which are sitting captives for the click, click, click of sheers.

For centuries, the Japanese have had a talent for moving stones and water to make a peaceful space, but when the pruning craze took over I do not know. These all seem to have coincided with the introduction of Buddhism from China. 80% of all Japan's historic gardens are in Kyoto, Japan's previous capital, but it wasn't until the 20th Century that the style of Japanese gardens were introduced to Europe as Japan industrialized and opened its doors to the modern world. that fit perfectly with the Modernism movement, which found the Japanese abstraction of the spiritual essences of mountains, water and natural principles perfectly in line with their own styles.

There is an entire world in a small Japanese garden, with man-made islands reflecting words for small, or imitating a cultural event, bridges being spiritual and real connectors, and vistas made to calm the eye and speak to one's inner self. 

But even as I look at some ideal of perfection, I still hanker to see a tree grown straight and tall, raggedy and crooked, as its nature and condition dictate.