by broken-kebab 9 hours ago
Yes, it's exactly it. But call it 'giant bonsai', and it sounds like a new discovery.
Well, except for the part where it depends on a mutation.
Unless you believe that Japanese version makes trees mutate, it's still pollarding.
It doesn't depend on a mutation.
“It is a little different, more like pollarding, and it doesn't work with any other conifers than saplings from one specific mutant cedar in a shrine near Kyoto.”