Life In Japan: Rice Art Honoring a Great Champion
I’ve been meaning to write about “rice art” for quite some time. But an announcement this week gave me the necessary push, so here it is.
Rice is usually planted here by weird-looking but truly ingenious machines. But as my neighbor is doing above, the job is then completed by hand-planting any areas which the machine can’t reach.
One notable exception takes place a few minutes from my house at a local B&B.
Here the entire field is planted by hand. The observation tower is there for good reason. Because when the rice comes in, here’s what it looks like.
It varies from year to year but my take on this piece is that it’s the Tambasasayama City mascot, a highly romanticized wild boar. Trust me, they’re not at all cute. If fact, they’re downright ugly!
In any case, here’s why I mention any of this. Probably the greatest skater in history — at least I think so — Japan’s own Yuzuru Hanyu, just announced that at age 27, he’s retiring from competition. He’ll still be skating, of course, but not in such demanding, high-stress situations as the Olympics and the myriad of clashes for primacy that surround it.
While looking at this story, I discovered a very special tribute to this great athlete, done as only the Japanese do things.
Rice art. What would be the equivalent in the U.S.? Wheat art? Corn art?
I’ll leave that to your imagination.
