Sign of Hope: Japanese Rice Field Art

Below are examples of Japanese Tanbo art, which is where people use rice of various types and colors to create a giant picture in rice fields.  Farmers create these remarkable displays with no ink or dye. Instead, they have carefully arranged and grown different color rice plants in paddy fields.  Rice-paddy art began in 1993 Inakadate, Aomori, as a local revitalization project. For the first nine years, the farmers created a simple picture of Mount Iwaki before moving on to more complex designs.

The pictures below (sent to me by Nancy Roberts) are dated prior to the Tsunami that swept through Japan in the early 2011. However, you can follow this link ("Newest Japanese Rice Field Art Sends Living Messages of Hope") to see post-Tsunami Tanbo art grown by Japanese rice farmers that contain messages of hope and perseverance meant to encourage a nation fed up with natural and unnatural disasters.