Many Japanese gardens are intended to be viewed like a rectangular painting from the main building, the interior of the building provides the frame for this picture. In these gardens, there is usually a dominant focal point, but unlike a formal Western garden, this focal point is almost always placed off center. Also, there is rarely an obvious viewing point , the garden is intended to be viewed from anywhere within the frame. During the winter, deciduous trees are totally linear. When choosing and training a deciduous tree, think of how it will look during the winter.
Some trees naturally have interesting structure and some are gawky or a mass of twigs.
When thinking about line, don t forget about the drama of silhouettes and shadows, especially during the winter when shadows are long. Trees are not theonly garden elements that cast shadows or can be silhouetted. I mean that they are often just post and beam structures such as arbors and pergolas. Lattice is totally linear, it is composed of lines crossing one another. A lattice screen to the east, south or west will cast interesting shadows during the winter, especially if you are creative about the pattern.