Born in obscurity, he overcame the sternest of obstacles to rise to prominence in his small town. Loved by his neighbours, he became a symbol of the Japanese virtue of perseverance against the odds.

People came from far and wide to wish him well — until a brutal attack this week that left him critically injured. It is all the more remarkable because Little Dai, as he is fondly known, is not a human being, but a plant; a long, thick, white daikon, or Japanese giant radish.

For the past few weeks newspaper readers and television viewers have been gripped by the vegetable drama unfolding in the small western town of Aioi.

Daikon are among the most common of Japanese edible roots, and Little Dai was remarkable in only one respect: rather than growing in the fields, he was an urban radish who pushed himself up through solid asphalt on a roadside pavement.

He first appeared in July and, rather than extracting him and filling in the hole, the local council honoured him with a signboard bearing the words: “Observe with affection”. Locals christened him Dokonjo Daikon, “the daikon with fighting spirit”, or, more colloquially, “the radish with balls”.

“People discouraged by tough times were cheered by its tenacity and strong will to live,” Jiro Matsuo, the Aioi town spokesman, said.

Daikon is a staple of Japanese cooking — pickled, grated and, above all, cooked with Devil’s Tongue jelly and fish sausage in the hearty winter stew known as oden. “This is the time of year when daikon are eaten in oden,” wrote the Mainichi newspaper. “But even without being eaten, this daikon provides nutrition for our hearts.”

Imagine the reaction then when Dokonjo Daikon was decapitated. The attack happened some time during the night last Saturday.

Neighbours who came out to check on the heroic tuber found his green leafy crown and the top of his sturdy body were missing. There were tears and outrage.

“The source of our energy has been chopped,” a local resident told the Mainichi. Even the unknown perpetrator seems to have repented his or her wickedness: three mornings later the daikon’s top half appeared again close to its bottom.

The town council has taken it into care and placed it in a saucer of water in the hope that it will stay alive and perhaps even flower.

But Aioi must come to terms with the painful knowledge that Dokonjo Daikon will be a vegetable for the rest of his life.

Eye-watering

• In Ancient Greece, a husband was permitted to punish anyone who committed adultery with his wife by forcing a radish up his rectum
• Eating too many radishes can cause wind
• In Gone With The Wind, the hungry Scarlett O’Hara tries to eat the only food she can find, a radish. She chokes on it and vows: “As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again.”
• Pliny the Elder wrote extensively on radishes, although he considered them food for the low-bred
• At the Kawasaki annual festival of the penis in Japan, part of the fun is carving penises out of daikon radishes

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