Rice Photo Gallery III  

Kazuko Tomiyama's 'Rice in Japan' Calendar (2002)

Water source of terraced paddy fields

(Houshuyama Village, Fukuoka Prefecture)

Every paddy field has an inlet and an outlet of water. Scenes like this bring the simple fact to mind. The outlet of water from one field becomes the inlet to the next one down. One by one, water fills each field until the whole slope forms a lake.

This type of scenery must have graced Japan since wet-rice cultivation reached these shores. That's how long the farmers have continually managed their water and, repairing breach after breach, labored on the ridges between the fields. 

Just imagine the annual care of millennia and you will get some idea of the depth of rice culture.