Villagers in Aomori, Japan have begun a new tradition in fine art. Since 1993, hundreds of volunteers and farmers have come together to create murals in local rice paddy  fields through the specific planting and arranging of thousands of different colored rice plants. Each year the art draws over 150,000 tourists to the small town of 8,700.

This year's rice art in Aormori includes Napoleon and a Sengoku-period warrior, both on horseback.  Nearby villages and rice-farming areas of Japan have taken up the tradition as well and designs of the fictional 16th-century samurai warrior Naoe Kanetsugu and his wife Osen, deer dancers, the character Doraemon, and more can be seen. 

 

Image: "Rice Harvest – Aomori" by  bebot on flickr, courtesy of Creative Commons.