Information from Ponko, our reader,
posted on our blog on July 13, 2013
“I was worried that chemicals might be used
to color rice fields. I am relieved to
find that leaves or spikes of ancient rice give coloring to the fields.”
(Comment
of the reader)
English translation of an excerpt from a
Japanese article: Peachy – July 10, 2013 –
“Rice
Field Art” in Japan Turns Out To be Amazing!
“Rice field art” is a large-scale art in
which people design rice fields with the use of various different kinds of rice
plants. It originated in early
1990s. There are 137 places across the
country, which is the number of confirmed rice fields so far, where this art is
exhibited; it is popular mainly in the Tohoku region.
The larger the area of rice planting is and
the more precise the design is, the more difficult it is to make art
It is amazing that no
chemicals are used to color rice fields because pictures or letters are drawn
with the use of multi-colored leaves or spikes of ancient rice — purple,
yellow, green and red.
Recently “rice filed art” has been known
throughout the country, and many tourists take a sightseeing bus tour to see it. I hear that one hundred thousand to two
hundred thousand tourists visit Inakadate village, Minamitsugaru County, Aomori
Prefecture every year. I do want to go
there.
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