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By Avi Landau
Let me tell you about a fascinating local custom. It involves FUTAMATA-DAIKON(二股大根),which is the Japanese term for a double-pronged daikon radish. These two-legged curiosities turn up at a surprisingly high rate when farmers harvest their daikon crop in late autumn. The aberrant shapes are caused by small rocks, hard clumps of soil or fertilizer, insects, or uneven distribution of irrigation water.
Futamata daikon at a roadside shrine in Konda, Tsukuba
The futamata daikon cannot be found on sale in stores or stalls , and in fact, though perfectly edible, they are traditionally NOT eaten. When I asked several local farmers why this was so, they all came out with the same response, in tones implying that I shouldnt have had to ask