The Big Turnip -Murakami radio-

      There is a Russian folk tale called "The Big Turnip". It has become a standard kindergarten play, and perhaps because of this, if you look on YouTube, you can watch 'The Big Turnip' performances (or something like that) at various kindergartens all over the country to your heart's content. It's a very simple story, but there must be something that attracts the children's hearts. However, I have always wondered about this story, but it ends with the turnip finally being pulled out. But what did they do with the turnips after they were pulled out? I imagine that the grandmother probably cooked them and served them to everyone who helped her, but did they taste good? In my experience, vegetables that grow unusually large are often big and tasteless. When everyone sweated and tried the turnips around the table, they said, "It's not good, I can't stand it", and even the rats who were summoned to the table complained, saying, "What the hell?", and these complaints gathered here and there, and a few years later the Russian Revolution broke out. ・・・・・・ It didn't turn out like that, did it?

There is also a big turnip story in the Japanese Konjaku Monogatari (Tales of Ancient Times). Once upon a time, there was a man who went from Kyoto to the east of Japan. When he passed by a certain place in the middle of the night, he was suddenly overcome by a violent sexual desire and was in a troubled state: 'No, I can't stand it any longer'. There was a turnip field just nearby, so I went in there and pulled out a big turnip, made a hole in it and had a nice 'nice' fuck with it, not suitable for kindergarten play). After a few minutes, the man said, "Ah, that's a relief" and threw the turnip out into the field and continued his journey. I feel sorry for the turnip, but, well, it's far less innocent than raping a girl or something like that". The next morning, the daughter of the owner of the field (15 years old) came there and found the big turnip that had been thrown out. She ate it, saying, "Oh, what a hole!" A few months later, her belly started to bulge. she was obviously pregnant. Her parents were angry at her, saying, "What a slut you are," but she had no memory of it. The daughter cries, "Well, the other day I ate a turnip with a hole in it that had fallen in the field, and then I started to feel sick, and this happened." Her parents were not convinced by such an explanation (they normally wouldn't be), but she was a beautiful baby, so they thought, "Well, it's OK" and brought her up with love and care.Eventually, a man who had risen in the East passed by the field again on his way back to Kyoto. He learned, through various circumstances, that the turnip he had committed five years earlier had mysteriously impregnated the family's daughter and resulted in the birth of a child.  The man said, "Oh, this is also karma of some kind", so they got married and lived happily ever after.

It's a strange story, isn't it? No matter how many times I read it, it's still very surreal. There's no lesson to be learned or anything. Or is the lesson of this story that no matter how much your libido grows, you shouldn't have sex with a vegetable without permission and that even turnips have personalities? The story of the turnip is very different in Russia and Japan.

Murakami this week.

Maybe a nation that thinks, "Something's wrong, but oh well" isn't the right kind of people for revolution.