VOX POPULI: Hidden buds stir, eager for spring thawing

What does ice become after it melts? Asked this question in a science test, one youngster answered, "Spring."

I repeated this story in this column recently, noting I could not vouch for its veracity because I only know it by hearsay. I then received a letter from a reader in her 60s who said she had lived in Sapporo as a child.

She enclosed a color copy of a science test she took in primary school, faded yellow with age. Her late mother must have held on to it, she explained: She found it when she went through her mother's belongings after she died.

One test question was, "What does snow become when it melts?" Her answer, written in pencil, was, "The ground appears and spring comes." Unfortunately, the answer was marked X for "wrong." Her overall test score was 85 out of 100.

I phoned her, eager to hear more of her story. She told me she used to plant crocuses and other spring flower bulbs in the family garden when she was a child. At the first sign of spring, the snow melted above those bulbs, exposing a small, round patch of soil. Eventually, the bulbs began to sprout beautiful green buds. "I must have been thinking about these things when I answered that test question," she noted.

The winds are still chilly in early spring, but they remind me of a poem by Rin Ishigaki (1920-2004) called "Nigatsu no Akari" (Light in February). It goes: "In February, a light goes on in the ground. ... Grass buds and flower bulbs get ready for their trip/ To help them prepare, their mothers wake up in the ground."

Plants are not the only living things that start stirring as spring nears. On a recent trip to Tokyo's Inokashira Park Zoo, I found an exhibition that enabled visitors to observe insects in hibernation. There were all kinds of creatures under fallen leaves and in the ground. Before long, "mothers" will be telling those little ones to wake up.

I imagine a number of people must have answered "spring" in their science tests as youngsters. According to the traditional lunisolar calendar, Feb. 19 was called usui (literally, rain water), which signals the beginning of the spring thaw.

Waiting patiently for the arrival of spring, I begin to believe that a child's "wrong answer" must actually be right.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 20

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.