Photo/Illutration People dig out bamboo sprouts in a bamboo forest in Kumamoto Prefecture in 2021. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

What is intriguing about bamboo is that it appears to resist the dictates of the seasons.

When trees and plants take on autumnal colors, bamboos become freshly green, as if they alone are wearing the colors of spring.

The way bamboos assume slightly out-of-place colors in autumn is known as “take no haru” (the spring of bamboos) in Japan. This expression is also used as “kigo,” or a seasonal phrase for haiku poetry.

Conversely, spring is “take no aki” (autumn of bamboos). Bamboo leaves turn yellow in this season as they provide nutrients to bamboo sprouts that grow vigorously.

They bring spring to their younger buddies while placing themselves in autumn, so to speak. This seems to be a manifestation of their consideration for the next generation.

The art of teaching requires sometimes being gentle and sometimes being demanding. Spring is the season when many corporate employees face a test of their skills in guiding and training younger colleagues.

In workplaces here and there, people are meeting new recruits and newly transferred employees starting to do new work. Veteran employees, as “grown bamboos,” need to play important roles both in training programs for rookie employees and in on-the-job training for newcomers.

When I joined a publishing company upon graduating from my university many years ago, an instructor for the company’s training program for new recruits offered an intriguing example.

The instructor was a veteran editor who had long been working for a magazine for girls. Since he had no children, he had created a fictitious girl to understand and sympathize with the thoughts and feelings of readers of the magazine.

He had given a name to the fictional girl and made a point of imagining what she was doing. He wondered whether the girl was attending school or playing with friends.

The editor’s effort to always think about the readers of the magazine was very instructive. Perhaps, such an attitude is required for any product or service.

When they encounter tall and resiliently flexible grown bamboos, bamboo sprouts may feel uncertain about whether they can become like them. But all people must have spent their “bamboo sprout” years feeling uncertain about their future while receiving nutrients from others.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 10

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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.

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