If you visit the Japanese gardens during winter, you will surely notice big conical structures raised around some of the pine-trees, like in this photo taken last winter in the Koishikawa Kōrakuen Garden in Tokyo.

The pine in the photo - a Hitotsu-matsu pine, is a special tree, shaped over decades with great care, until it reaches perfection. Since the snow could bend its branches, the tree is protected with this technique called Yukitsuri ("snow hanging").

Koishikawa Kōrakuen Garden, Hitotsu-matsu Pine Tree, Tokyo

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