Do You Know There Are Rice Paddies Spreading in Tokyo?

I introduced two historical sites in Hachioji Tokyo in my previous post on April 5th. As I wrote in the post the history of Hachioji city is long, and the place was already developed in 16th century. So there are many historical sites of varied era. 

Besides, Hachioji is not only a historical city, but is also known as a major farming area of Tokyo. Moreover, even rice paddies can be seen there and you can buy good rice grown in Hachioji as shown in the photos above. There are several rivers going through the city, and people have been growing rice using the abundant water supply since old times.

Therefore, rice paddies in Hachioji have been established for a long time. Apparently some of them have been handed down for more than 10 generations, and it would mean the history of the rice paddies goes back to around 1600. Perhaps the historical Samurai lords and Samurai soldiers who were in the historical castles introduced in the previous post were also eating the rice grown in these rice paddies shown in the photos?

The paddies may look like dried up fields now, but farmers will start planting rice seedlings in May. It will be beautiful rice paddies again soon!