Wednesday 27 September 2017

The Rice Art Season Is Here,

and this year it looks even better than ever,


 it is a strange thing that the rice growers here at Inakadate, in Aomori Prefecture, Japan, make a better living by growing rice pictures to look at rather than growing the rice to eat!

 We featured the village some time ago way back in 2015, but now thought it was time for a revisit, in order to increase tourism to the small village, officials began a traditional of creating large, elaborate images by strategically plantings different varieties of rice, nearly 25 years later, the town is known throughout the country for its colourful rice drawings, which occur each year with the help of hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of local volunteers,

to begin the process for upcoming designs, there is first a conference to discuss possible ideas, next government officials make simple computer mock-ups of the winning designs, which are then sent to local art teachers for more conceptual renderings, 

finally, markers are placed into the fields to create what is essentially a large-scale paint-by-number, the entire process taking up to three months, in this years pictures a total of 7 different rice varieties were used, some of the designs for this year included the legend of Yamata no Orochi, (eight forked serpent), and Susanoo, (Shinto God of the sea and storms), and a folk tale featuring Momotaro, (the Peach Boy),

You can see more images of the famous rice paddy fields in the video above, Who knows what stories will be featured in next years crop? amazing!


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