Bound Tree

On the occasion of a visit I made to the Japanese Garden back in November 2006, as I was leaving, I happened to notice something that caught my attention: a tree bound with ropes.

The inventiveness seemed striking to me, though I do not know if it signifies anything beyond simple ornamentation. I wondered: what reason could there be for a tree to be "bound," surrounded by ropes?

Some time later, a user named sfab44, who mentioned she was a doctor from Uruguay, shared with me that during a trip to China, she had been told the reason why they often "bind trees": they wrap them with ropes in order to retain moisture.