Across the Ou Plain

 

The first part of day 44 of my walk along the Chugoku Kannon Pilgrimage was in Higashi Izumo, and I walked across the Ou Plain, once home to the provincial capital of Izumo.

My first stop was Kamosu Shrine with its National Treasure main hall. Just across the road from the entrance to the shrine was a rice paddy with black rice.

I don't remember ever coming across black rice before. Red rice I have seen growing and have eaten, but not black. I wonder if it is just a coincidence that it is grown next to the shrine, or if it is grown for a ritual. I have not seen mention of such a ritual in my readings on Kamosu Shrine...

Between Kamosu Shrine and Rokusho Shrine there was a roadside altar with this delightful, aged statue. I think it may be a Dainichi.

A line of giants march across the land from the nuclear power station NW of Matsue. I am reminded of Kurosawa, one of the great Japanese film directors, and a favorite of mine, who stopped making historical movies in Japan because there were so few places where power lines could not be found intruding into the view.

My route roughly followed the course of the Iu River, which empties into the Nakaumi Lagoon.

A small tunnel cuts through a hillside as I start to turn East and head over  some low hills.

It is early October, and some of the paddies have been harvested, some not yet. The paddies in this area, being a plain, are so much larger than in my area where the valleys are narrow.

As I gain a little elevation, I can see the Nakaumi Lagoon and the eastern end of the Shimane Peninsula beyond.

Not completely sure, but I believe this Praying Mantis, Kamakiri in Japanese, is nearing the end of its lifecycle....

Whereas this guy has a few more months before needing to hibernate for a while.

Across rural Japan are thousands and thousands of construction company yards filled with scaffolding and other equipment,.... many of these yards are abandoned....

The previous post in the series was on Rokusho Shrine....

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First Rice Paddies in Japan

 

No-one can know for sure exactly when and where rice was introduced into Japan, as this was in prehistory.

However, the Nabatake Site in Karatsu, Saga, has been identified by archeologists as the oldest known wet-rice farming settlement  so far discovered.

A new local history museum, the Matsurokan, display materials from the site as well as a reconstruction of a pit house and a group of paddies.

It is named after Matsurokoku, a place mentioned in the earliest Chinese records of Japan as the site where they landed on theoir way to the legendary Yamatai, home of "Queen" Himiko. It is believed that Matsurokoku was this area.

Certainly rice was introduced into Japan, along with so much else, including the bulk of Japanese Dna, through Northern Kyushu, the closest point to the Asian mainland.

All the info is only in Japanese, and I was surprised that given the modern Japanese obsession with rice that this place is not more widely known, celebrated, or visited.

I was exploring Karatsu before heading up the coast on day 73 of my Kyushu walk. The previous post was on the former Takatori Mansion.

Manhole Rice

The most common motif by far  used in the designs on manhole covers in japan is the cherry blossom. Considering the central place occupied by rice in Japanese identity it is surprising that it does not appear more often than it does. This first one is from Mizuho up in the mountains near where Iwami meet Hiroshima.

I found this second one in the village of Koshita south of Usa in northern Kyushu.

Also in northern Kyushu, but on the opposite side in Fukuoka, this one is from Itoshima, one of the very ancient centers of early Japanese intereactions with Asia.

The final one is from near Kurayoshi in Tottori and it shows a farm woman using a senbakoki, a threshing machine with a steel "comb" that separates the the easr and grains from the stalks. Prior to its invention in the 17th Century a tool made from a piece of split bamboo, a kokibashi, was used.

Rice planting maidens. Saotome.

Saotome, rice-planting maidens from last weekends Tauebayashi Matsuri up in Atoichi.

Saotome appear in all kinds of rice planting ceremonies and rituals all over Japan. The link between agriculture, fertility, and sexuality was common to many rites in agricutural societies, though as far as I know in Japan the explicit link still exists at only one shrine up in Asuka.

Nowadays the maidens come in all ages.

It is difficult to overstate the obsession Japanese have with rice.

To the horror of any Japanese who know me, I don't like the plain, white, sticky, stuff!

Barbarian that I am.

Actually for most japanese, rice only became the staple food relatively recently. For most of japanese history the common people subsisted on a porridge made from various grains. White rice was reserved for special occasions.

The rich lived on white rice, and it is believed emperors and lords sometimes died from beri-beri.

Rice Harvest

The rice harvest has been underway for a few weeks now. Mostly it's done on weekends or holidays, as most rice farmers have full time jobs doing something else. Some people use combine harvesters that cut the rice and strip the grain in one operation, and some just cut the rice and let it dry.

Temporary drying racks made from Giant Bamboo are a common sight now.

In a village up in the mountains near Iwami Ginzan, the farmers build an unusual support to hold the drying rice. people come from all over to photograph it.

The rice is taken to the mill building that every settlement has. The motors hum non-stop for weeks as the rice is hulled. Behind the shed the rice husks collect into piles. The husks are used as mulch in our vegetable gardens.

It is often said that Japan's grossly ineffecient rice harvest is funded by the LDP as a way of wooing the rural vote - a rural vote can be worth 3 or 4 city votes-, but I think there is another reason. The money the farmers receive doesnt stay with the farmers, it ends up in the coffers of the zaibatsu. Rice farming is completely mechanized, with every farmer owning many pieces of equipment, often only used once a year. As well as the equipment manufacturers, the chemical companies also make a fortune as Japanese farmers use a LOT of chemicals.