Moyashimon, vol. 1, page 15.
The Japanese have a longstanding love affair with radishes, especially large ones, especially radishes with supernatural powers. The 14th-century miscellany Essays in Idleness records:
There was in Tsukushi a certain man, a constable of the peace it would seem, who for many years had eaten two broiled radishes each morning under the impression that radishes were a sovereign remedy for all ailments. Once some enemy forces attacked and surrounded his constabulary, choosing a moment when the place was deserted. Just then, two soldiers rushed out of the building, and engaged the enemy, fighting with no thought for their lives until they drove away all the enemy troops. The constable, greatly astonished, asked the two soldiers, "You have fought most gallantly, gentlemen, considering I have never seen you here before. Might I ask who you are?" "We are the radishes you have faithfully eaten every morning for so many years," they answered, and with these words they disappeared. So deep was his faith in radishes that even such a miracle could occur.
Essays in Idleness, episode 68, translated by Donald Keene.
