Hi, well for starters, 'Japanese Pagoda' is not a tree, but a brand name of the grower. You need to find out what kind of tree you actually have so you know how to take care of it, why it lost branches and what to do from now on - it could even be a tree that's meant to live outdoors 24/7/365 to experience cold dormancy and other things 'hardy' trees need. Can you post a picture either to the gallery of this forum (and leave a note on this side to alert us to look) or at least describe leaves as precisely as possible - size, whether edges are sharp toothed or scalloped (or not), whether leaves are long & narrow, whether they are not leaves but little bunches of needles (not thorns, but like most evergreens), etc. Any shape ('S'for instance) already trained into the trunk won't help BTW). Also tell how large the pot is, how often you water, if you do it from above and how much, and what kind of light you keep it in for how many hrs/day. There's a lot of help out there, but without knowing what your tree is....

Thanks for your comments... I know what kind of tree I actually have. It is a Sophora japonica, commonly known as a Japanese Pagoda Tree. It is a native of Japan, China and Korea. It has always been outside. It is in a gallon sized nursery pot, it sits outside in full sun and gets water from the hose frequently. As I suggested in my original post, it has not been trained into any shape, since I have only begun to consider it as a bonsai specimen.
I actually do know how to take care of it as a tree... I have many trees of various types that I have grown succesfully from seed. My question was really only about care to begin bonsai with it.

It is in a 5 gallon pot..