legend at mount fuji harvested for japan's 2014 rice paddy landscape

legend at mount fuji harvested for japan’s 2014 rice paddy landscape
image courtesy of hirosaki tourism and convention bureau

 
every summer, a tiny farming town in northern japan hosts an art event that garners international acclaim for its impressive-scale and unusual medium. the village of inakadate in aomori prefecture is best known for its production of rice. since 2003, artists in the village have used the plant ubiquitous to their culture as a means to grow designs into the earth, cultivated on one of the vast paddy fields. past year’s compositions — previously featured by designboom — have included historical japanese figures and warriors; the 2014 scene measures 100m by 140m, and depicts a legend about mount fuji and a heavenly maiden. the images are created with yellow and purple varieties of rice, together with an aomori variety called tsugaru roman which is a vibrant green. visitors arrive from all over the world to see the land art piece, which can be most easily and visibly seen from an observation deck, towering nearby the field’s expanse.

the rice drawing of the heavenly maiden

japan’s mount fuji is delineated by the colored rice

digital drawing of the design

beginning stages: preparing the field for planting
all images courtesy of the village of inakadate

secondary development sees the colored rice beginning to form within the arranged composition

final stages of the growth period bring the ‘rice painting’ to life

gif by designboom