Rice Field Art Has Spread All Over Japan

As you all know, Japanese love eating rice as it is an essential staple in their diet. The amount of self-sufficiency of rice in Japan is very high, about 95%, and the scenery of rice fields is a national symbol of the Japanese countryside. Imagine beautiful golden rice plants shining under the sunny blue sky… Rice fields make the Japanese countryside more beautiful through all four seasons.

In a small corner of Inakadate Village, a little hamlet in Aomori Prefecture, there is a massive piece of art called “Rice Field Art,” where 12 species of rice are used to make 7 different color shades to create massive canvases out of rice fields, which are 492 feet long and 328 feet wide.

Though it’s spreading throughout Japan now, Inakadate Village was the first to create such an art piece, and the level of detail put on display in their work is absolutely unbelievable. They first started making the “Rice Field Art” in 1993 as a community revitalization project, and since then it has spread all across the country. Now there are more than 100 rice field art locations all over Japan.

At Inakadate village they change the motifs every year. Throughout the years rice canvases of Marilyn Monroe, Hokusai’s “Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji,” and Star Wars were attracting lots of tourists. Last year 340,000 people came to visit this village to see the beautiful artwork rice field art and with this year’s depiction of the popular Taiga Drama, “Sanadamaru,” the village is seeing a lot of interest in their work.