A vegetable atrocity

Regular readers of this blog appreciate its committed coverage of news about the daikon, the Japanese giant radish. It was here that you read first about the strange shaped radishes of Ibaraki and Osaka, about the fad for radish-shaped cuddly toys, and about the moving story of Dokonjo Daikon, “the daikon with fighting spirit”, or, more colloquially, “the radish with balls”.

Dokonjo Daikon, you will remember, became a celebrity after pushing his way up through a layer of solid asphalt to bloom in the middle of an urban pavement in the town of Aioi. The daikon is the humblest of Japanese vegetables, as banal and unglamorous as a turnip or a carrot (and with some of the same smutty schoolboy snigger value, inspired by its phallic shape). So the spectacle of one thrusting through the crust of tarmac and concrete which Japanese have unthinkingly smeared across their beautiful country over the past generation, was moving in a way which is not immediately easy to understand.

This was the serious, and interesting, thing about what might otherwise have seemed to be a straightforwardly entertaining bit of Japanese ludicrousness. It was something to do with the triumph of old-fashioned simplicity over convenience and technology, a reassuring demonstration that however much we pollute the planet, nature will patiently assert itself again. So when the famous radish was chopped with a knife by vandals after a few weeks, the townspeople of Aioi did not accept his death. They took his mutilated head, placed it in water like a carrot top, and vowed that Dokonjo Daikon would live on.

But now, distressing news. Those of a squeamish nature should spare themselves the sight of the atrocity photograph reproduced below.

This is the Ballsy Daikon today: rank, slimy, and shrivelled - little more than a vegetable. But Japanese science is proposing a radical solution. Biologists at Sumitomo Techno Service, an affiliate of Sumitomo Chemical dedicated to developing techniques for prolonging life, will take a one millimetre slice and attempt to incubate from it a fully formed daikon. In normal circumstances, the technique would enjoy at least a 70 per cent success rate. For the patient above, success is far less certain . . .

Comments

[patricia nakamura]

Poor daikon! I wish "him" all the luck! But let me tell u guys the truth: daikon radish is not that tasty... huh...

[Mikko Takala]

Terrible and very sad. It was only a few months ago that they murdered a little sparrow who accidentally spilt some dominos in Holland. Now an innocent radish is butchered...where will the carnage end?

[gaba]

owwww....
pretty pretty daikon... hope he´ll return to his life, as strong as before...

[Mark Lonergan]

poor proud daikon
pushed through to the sky
now all is dark

[Philippa Jeory]

Re taste; T'is true. In the small town of Ichinomiya, a little hour North of Aioi, where I live, I was most pleased when a real (Indian) curry house opened. Being a Brit I miss our national dish a great deal. To my dismay, on my second visit, I ventured a 'veggie balti'. The Japan/ Indo couple who run the place chose to replace potato with Daikon!!! Bad bad bad move. Not tasty at all. They might aswell have made Natto Vindaloo. Beautiful to the eye but not to the lips.

[chen c8]

owww....its wonderful 4 her so gudluck 2 her ok