Saturday 25 September 2021

It Is That Time Of Year Again,

the rice has been harvested,



so what to do with the stalks? all images courtesy of Wara Art Festival, if you look back to October 2017 when we last featured the festival, you will see that the stalks are made into huge creatures,

although missing last year in 2021 the creatures are back,

Japan’s Niigata Prefecture is a  part of the Wara Art Festival, a summertime event that displays massive animals and mythical creations fashioned from the crop’s leftover straw,

there is a partnership between the people of the former Iwamuro Village, which is now Nishikan Ward, and Tokyo’s Musashino Art University (known colloquially as Musabi) in 2006. At the time, Department of Science of Design professor Shingo Miyajima suggested that the unused straw be used in a collaborative art project between the university and local farmers, resulting in the first Wara Art Festival in 2008,

today, students and artisans from Nishikan Ward construct the wooden armature and thatched bodies, some standing as high as 30 feet,

the 13th show is at Uwasekigata Park,

all of the insects and animals, are all on view through to October 31, just a small thing, remember, No Smoking!


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