April 2009 Archives

Somehow, I managed to live and practice photography in Japan for an entire year without ever hearing of rice field art. But if you're looking for the ultimate story in pictures, you can't miss this stunning art form. Why did it take me so long to discover it? I guess my stodgy little town had more important things on its mind, like how to survive the five feet of snow periodically dumped on us. After all it's a country that inexplicably refuses to consider innovations like insulation and central heating.

In Japan, we had rice fields in abundance. Of course, they had their own unique beauty, from the tiny frogs that called them home to the neatly symmetrical blend of greenery and water. But we didn't have anything to rival the photography of rice field art.