It Is That Time Of The Year Again,

the Wara Art Festival 2023 is taking place, 

the festival will be running until Tuesday, October 31, 2023, 

 wara, or rice straw is leftover after the rice has been cropped, it has a number of uses, it can be ploughed down as soil improver, fed to livestock, or even woven into decorative ornaments,

and it can also be crafted to make creatures, for the past 10 years Uwasekigata Park has hosted a Wara Art Festival by teaming up with art students to create artworks, both large and small, from rice straw,

the theme for this year’s festival is “Echigo no Umi” (Sea of Echigo). Echigo was an old province in north-central Japan, on the shores of the Sea of Japan, that corresponds to current-day Niigata, as it happens we have featured the festival a few time before, some of the posts are here, if you are lucky enough to be in Japan the festival is held at 1 Matsunoo, Nishikan Ward, Niigata, 953-0015, Japan, a map of Uwasekigata Park is here, the Japanese website is here, showing a artist impression of the works to be completed.