Kimura San was the first Bonsaï artist to break the 'naturalistic' tradition and achieve more extreme 'human influenced' shapes. His vision involved the use of modern powertools to shape Deadwood parts on Bonsaïs, mainly Juniper trees. His genius is now widely recognized in the Bonsaï World where he a is considered a living legend.

I've never seen such a wonderful Bonsai, artificially harmonized rocks and trees. I met Mr. Masahiko Kimura accidentally in this museum. There were some fans from Canada, Netherland and some other places. This showed his fame was spreading all over the world.

More pictures here

...and a very interesting explanation of Kimura's vision by his US student, Ryan Neil

...the border between the tree and the artist nature in the artwork and the related design humility is central in this modern approach to Bonsaï art. But Ghostwood doesn't come from the Bonsaï world, we can't do real Bonsaï and have no real experience there. Here, trees don't need to 'look old' and 'imitate nature', they just need to 'look good', even with more anthropomorphic criterias. It is definitely a less noble approach, but definetely a post modern one risen from our urban lives and the fun of sharing Primitive human art (at first) to the Plant.