Do you know “Rice Paddy Art (Tanbo Art)”?

 “Rice Paddy Art (Tanbo Art)” is an activity that started recently where people create a design on actual rice paddies. There are many kinds of rice with naturally different colored leaves and the ears. “Rice Paddy Art (Tanbo Art)” takes advantage of the differences in plant colors to create a design, so it’s a design made by plants.

The art takes a long time to complete, because people need to plant many different types of rice seedlings following a blueprint in spring, and wait until fall. When all the plants are fully grown with ears, the intended design become clear.

The photos were taken in Hachioji City, Tokyo. This year is the 100^th anniversary of Hachioji’s municipal system and many activities and events are being held. Takatsuki area in the city is the largest rice producing area in Hachioji and planned to make a “Rice Paddy Art (Tanbo Art)” for the celebration.

The design shows “A rabbit on the full moon”, because the town name “Takatsuki” contains a Japanese word “Tsuki (moon)”, and ancient people in Japan believed that rabbits are living on the moon.

The town people used more than ten different types of rice and it’s amazing to see the variety of colors that different rice plants have! You can enjoy the view until the end of this month before their harvest. The grains harvested from the various colors of rice will be used for public school lunch in the city.

It is the best time now to see the “Rice Paddy Art (Tanbo Art)” in Takatsuki Town! In addition, around the  “Rice Paddy Art (Tanbo Art)”, you can enjoy seeing a traditional view of rice producing area even though it is inside of Tokyo!

[WHEN]　From September 16^th to 30^th , 2017

[WHERE] Takatsuki, Hachioji City　
There is a temporary tower for the “Rice Paddy Art” and you can see it from the parking below.

[PARKING］There are two parking lots to see the “Rice Paddy Art (Tanbo Art)”. The one is besides Takatsyki Community Center and the other is riverside area. 

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!