India, Oct. 6 -- In most places, if an old tree is in the way of a road or a building, they probably just cut it down. Some prized, well-established trees in Japan get a slower option: crews prepare the roots, then transplant the entire tree. The practice, called nemawashi, or "going around the roots," involves workers digging around a tree and preparing its roots for the move. The goal is to help the tree recover from the shock of being moved.

Roots help trees absorb water, and if too many are lost, the tree can suffer transplant shock. A 2026 paper by Toshihiro Umebayashi, Yasuhiro Utsumi, and Yuzou Sano, published in Arboriculture & Urban Forestry, notes that up to 95% of a tree's roots may be lost when it is moved with a balled and b...