“Tambo Art”, the art of the rice fields in Inakadate 田んぼアート
Rice paddies turned into colorful works of art in Aomori
Tambo art is an artistic technique that consists of creating a design with different varieties of rice directly in a rice field. Some sites have specialized in tambo art to attract tourists and revitalize their region.
Rice fields like paintings in Aomori
Take a rice field and imagine it as a canvas, a blank canvas on which anything is possible. Your colors will be different varieties of rice, green of course, with all its nuances but also purple, white, red.
Rice is the staple food of Japan, and there are plenty of rice paddies all over the country.
Today, from Hokkaido to Kagoshima, about twenty producers and villages participate in Tambo Art, assimilated into the Land Art movement.
Tambo art at Inakadate special 'Star Wars'
FlickrYari3180
The city of Gyoda (in the prefecture of Saitama) has embarked on this art by offering the largest artistic field in the world, 2.8 hectares, constituting a record registered in Guinness.
- Read: Rice in Japan
The artistic challenge of Inakadate's Tambo Art
Japan's best-known Tambo Art project is that of Inakadate Village in Aomori. With 8,000 inhabitants, Inakadate sees half of its land made up of rice fields.
The project begins to germinate in 1993, with the aim of the economic recovery of the region which is in decline following the aging of the population of Japan. To publicize the village, revitalize it and pass on the tradition of rice growing, the population decides to embark on Tambo Art, a vector of tourist attraction.
They started creating works of art in the fields with just three varieties of rice, and it worked! The bet is now largely won because of more and more tourists and curious flock.
- Read also: Discovering the Setouchi Triennale
Go admire the colorful rice fields from the observatories
Today, it is possible to appreciate works with 7 different colors of 12 varieties of rice used. The designs are very elaborately constructed for a dynamic result.
In 2018, 26,000 visitors came to discover the works of Tambo Art by Inakadate. Two specific observatories have been built to fully appreciate them.
When is the best time to admire Tambo Art? Planting takes place in May and harvesting in September thanks to volunteers. The best time to see Tambo Art 's works is between mid-July and mid-August.
Different themes are treated each year, such as in 2008, in the film "Roman Holiday", the manga characters of Tezuka, Black Jack, and Princess Sapphire or Astro Boy.
In 2019, you can admire the image of the legendary singer Hibari Misora, a performance in the film "Hard to be a man" and "Oshin" an NHK TV movie.
Tambo art at Inakadate "Japanese Legend"
Wikimedia Commons
- Access: To see the tambo art of Inakadate, from the town of Hirosaki, take the small private Konan line to Tambo Art station where observatory n°2 is located. A free shuttle will take you to observatory n°1.
- Prices: To access the observatory, 300yen (adult) and 100yen (child over 6 years old).
