Stunning Rice Field Art

Blimey, have you seen of crop art spread out in rice field in Aomori, Japan?
This massive art project began in 1993, at Inakadate village in Aomori. Aomori is the northern most prefecture on the main island of Japan. So it is pretty far away from Tokyo and Kyoto, where there are less people and tourist. Archeologists in the village discovered that rice has been cultivated in the area for over 2000 years. They started to create rice field art in order to celebrate and bring life back into the small village.

To ensure more than just plane passengers could enjoy the sight from above, they even built a castle like building near the village office where you can have better view from the top of the castle. The artwork is first designed by computer, calculating what the image will look like from the rooftop of the castle. Then, hundreds of volunteers and villagers rope off patched of fields, and different type and colors of rice strains have been precisely and strategically planted and grown in the fields. The designs change every year, popular designs are Japanese folklore and J-pop culture.

Now the village has earned a reputation for its agricultural artistry and every year, over 100,000 visitors from Japan and overseas come to see the fields.
Interested, please check the Aomori prefecture official website(English).


(Photos by Getnews, and Aptinet)