Hi everyone I'm wanting to start a Japanese maple and I have a parent tree I would love to clone because I love the love of this tree so my question is, is there a way to root a cutting of a Japanese maple without grafting it and if so how can I do it? Thank you for your time

You can, through air layering.

I agree, air layering is probably the best method for getting new trees from the parent tree. I have 3 English elm trees taken from one tree by air layering which I originally collected as a sucker. I have a Japanese maple that was bought for me with a graft joint that looks worse than my knobbly knees, I'm going to air layer it above the graft to improve the overall look of it