the pine tree

The strong pine tree, along with the plum and the bamboo, stands as one of the most impressive welcomers to the New Year in Japan. The pine symbolizes sturdiness and strength in its straight trunk, and constancy and long life in its evergreen needles.

To capture the character of the needles, it is best to use a small hard brush with noboku. In a technique called sharin-ho ("the way of the wheel"), the needles, like spokes, are straight strokes emanating from a central point. These "wheels" are irregular and overlap in their groupings, but each cluster of needles must seem to join at a central "hub" and be straight and of approximately equal length, even though freely painted. Note the variation in the amount of ink on the brush as it gradually runs dry before reloading.

The center of each "wheel" is accentuated with one pressure stroke and then connected to the smaller branches of the pine with noboku sembyo strokes.

In a finished painting of the pine, color may be added to the trunk in brown washes before the black sumi is completely dry, taking care to leave untouched areas of white. Green may be washed over the needles, using a large soft brush and sweeping the color on with strokes which follow the direction of the needles. For Mr. Uchiyama's finished pine painting, see the next page.

In this completed painting of the beautiful pine tree, the placement on the paper, as with any of the other paintings, is the first important consideration. In his pre-painting thinking, Mr. Uchiyama first decides on the shape of the paper he plans to use, cutting the paper to this shape. Then, with pencil and sketchpad, he roughs in the composition which comes to mind, indicating the placement and direction of the trunk mass and main branches, and then softly and loosely indicates the placement of the clusters of needles. Satisfied with the general design of his sketch, he props it up before him, gets a new sheet of paper, selects a large hard-bristled brush, fills it, and, after a moment's pause in which he mentally paints, the paper, he unhesitatingly sweeps in one line of the tree. From here on, the painting moves swiftly—the whole tree plus one or two main branches, the circular motion for the bark, and then, changing to the small brush, the clusters of needles. While he paints, he constantly thinks of the white areas he is leaving, as they are an important, unspoken part of the whole design. In addition to the brown of the bark and the green washed on the needles, there may be a pine cone or two and a few touches of red to indicate new buds.