I am asked quite often what is this particular style of pruning on sugi (Cryptomeria japonica) or dai sugi 台スギ as can be seen in some Kyoto Japanese gardens…
In fact, it’s not Japanese pruning, a niwaki enrolling in an aesthetic research to restore the beauty of nature (I take this opportunity to remind you, this is the essence of Japanese pruning !), but it is a subject from a type of forest production, the round rafters for the construction of roof structures.
I am also asked if it would be possible to apply it here to some of our endemic species. Sincerely, as I am not frankly attracted by this kind of not natural result (a fairly high clump pruning with a multitude of naked trunks dressed with a small tuft of vegetation at the tip !) I never tried, so I do not know … but considering how these rafters are obtained, we would need a tree with the same growth characteristic as cryptomeria, that is to say, a fast growing with a long straight trunk, admitting that there can be this type of traumatic repetition typical of this tree …
