So I picked up a new shimpaki juniper today and while I have a general idea of what I want to do with the tree I wanted to get some outside input. Here are some pictures of the tree.





What do you guys think? I was just going to go ahead and wire it and prune it but I was afraid of removing some of the larger branches and regretting it. I know i will need to remove two of the branches in the middle of the trunk but I am not sure which two. Right now I am leaning towards saving the middle one.

The bottom branch I was thinking of either making deadwood or making it come out towards the viewer a little bit with a tuft on the end.

There is some wound about 3/4 the way up the right long branch that might end up killing everything above it.

I am really just kind of unsure on if is should keep both long branches or do i need to get rid of one? I think informal upright fits this tree the best, am I wrong?

Thanks for your input!

Continue with the middle one indeed. Remove the left one completely, it is to weak. The right one cane be made into a jin, or maybe a balance branch (sasha-eda). Remove every branch further down the trunk or make nice jins of them.

It may become a nice Bunjingi (literati), not a Moyogi (informal upright). The tree does not have enough taper to become a moyogi. This is because a moyogi represents a tree that is standing very close to you. You look at it from beneath, so taper must be exaggerated to correct your viewing angle. A Bunjingi represents a tree which is viewed from a distance. With a Bunjingi, taper isn't necessary. It is far more important that the tree features nice movement in the trunk and its branches. That's why you should go with the middle branch.

well in my opinion you can go the route tha D explained and go for the bunjinji style leaving the 1st rightside branch and the 2nd left of the larger set
personaly if it were mine i would chop it down to the 3 very small shoots that are at the bottom and start over styling with a nice specimen in 10 years ...i can be a little drastic with my ideas tho.you have to imagine a final result and then over time attempt to achieve it.
my advice would be to do some image searches to get some ideas. it can help tremendously

I say remove the branch on the rightside in the middle and the lower one.
Shape the tree from the left branch.
By removing the thick branch in the rightside cleanly you will get a more interesting movement in the trunk.
If you use the middle rightside branche it goes up Straight and can be à bit boring.
Looks like Nice literati material.