Shiga: Temple priest finds a sandy bamboo shoot growing under the tree and lifts a heavy wooden beam

KUSATSU, Shiga – The vice priest of Saiho Temple in Kusatsu, Shiga Prefecture, found a bamboo shoot lifting a heavy wooden beam in the hills behind the temple. The beam was about 2.1 meters long and so heavy that a person would have difficulty lifting it. Temple officials were surprised by the incredible power of the bamboo shoot.

Vice priest Tetsugen Maki and a friend found the bamboo shoot on April 20 while walking behind the temple. The black tip of the bamboo, which had apparently grown rapidly due to the recent rain and abundant sunshine, pushed a randomly fallen beam up about 50 centimeters. He saw the shoot growing bigger every day.

This year’s bamboo shoots are in abundance, and another bamboo shoot was found in the area that lifted another beam weighing more than 30 kilograms by five centimeters. That bamboo shoot has now been harvested.

Maki said, “I have a feeling something good is going to happen because I found two incredibly grainy bamboo shoots.”