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Japanese Village Plants Different Types of Rice To Grow Giant Homage To Art History

Rice Paddy Art

Every year since 1993, the Japanese village of Inakadate transforms its fields into living works of art. Tapping into their history as a farming area, they create incredible rice paddy art by planting different varieties of rice in intricate designs. This summer's project depicts two famous female portraits from western and eastern art history.

On one side is the iconic Mona Lisa by Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci and on the other is Japanese 19th and 20th-century artist Seiki Kuroda's painting Lakeside, which features a portrait of his wife Taneko Kaneko. Both of these figures are rendered by planting seven different types of rice that, when in full bloom, help produce the necessary amount of contrast to imitate the colors and depth of the real works of art.

Due to the scale of rice paddy art, it requires a fair amount of planning to execute it properly. Former high school teacher Atsushi Yamamoto has been responsible for all of the complex designs in Inakadate, for which he uses a computer to translate the color schemes of the original image into something reproducible with just seven colors of farm field rice.

This year's rice paddy art can be viewed from mid-June until early October. You can follow Inakadate Village on Facebook to see more photos of their rice paddy art. They also have a page set up on their website that shares the natural changes in color of the crops with a picture each day through the end of October.

The Japanese village of Inakadate is famous for its rice paddy art made by precisely plotting and planting seven colors of farm field rice.

Mona Lisa Rice Paddy Art in Japan

Rice paddy art on June 21, 2022

This year, they captured two famous female portraits from art history—Mona Lisa and Taneko Kaneko.

Mona Lisa Rice Paddy Art in Japan

Rice paddy art on July 28, 2022

Inakadate Village: Website | Facebook 
h/t: [Spoon & Tamago]

All images via Inakadate Village.

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Margherita Cole

Margherita Cole is a Contributing Writer at My Modern Met and illustrator based in Southern California. She holds a BA in Art History with a minor in Studio Art from Wofford College, and an MA in Illustration: Authorial Practice from Falmouth University in the UK. She wrote and illustrated an instructional art book about how to draw cartoons titled 'Cartooning Made Easy: Circle, Triangle, Square' that was published by Walter Foster in 2022.
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