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Photo storyOpen AccessPublished: October 2020

A Novel Approach to Scarecrows in Japanese Rice Terraces (Photo Stories)

  • Yuji Ueno1
Affiliations
  1. 1 Nagaoka Institute of Design

The Art of Terraced Landscapes volume 1, issue 1 (2020) · Cite this article

Abstract

A novel approach to the use of scarecrows in Japan’s rice terraces based on their introduction to the rice terraces in Hirei village in Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture. These scarecrows stand above the rice terraces of Hirei village, a very famous rice-growing area on the northwest coast of Honshu Island in Japan. The concept is based on the idea that “scarecrows are farmers and friends”. Therefore, the appearance of the scarecrows should be friendly and funny.

Keywords

  • terraces
  • art
  • terraced landscape

Art and terraced landscapes

Introduction

Timmi TILLMANN

The ITLA Art Journal on Terraced Landscapes is offering a unique and original space for a diversity of artistic expressions. In itself the terraces are attractive and beautiful - rice terraces in China have become World Heritage Sites and attract photographers and tourists in a mass movement; terrace regions of Ifugao in Philippines create spaces for an alternative tourism close to nature: Indonesia with its island jewel of Bali reflects a panorama of religious landscape and spiritual relations to the water temples which give order and beauty to the family agriculture; terraced landscapes of Bhutan, Nepal and India have become destinations for people who hike in the mountains for its natural and healthy environment; the beauty of vineyards in Europe not only provide an aesthetic satisfaction but also diversity of high quality heroic wines and local food specialties; Machu Picchu in Peru stands for the Inka achievement of moulding the mountains into a sacred terraced landscape as a model for domesticating nature.

The views itself in photos, in drawings and sketches are artistic expressions, but we also find art in the terraces. Art in terraces is a comprehensive expression including testimonies, documentation, crisis and future vision, children’s drawings and it complements the publication of the scientific research on terraces and of the action and practical initiatives of local communities and activists to restore living in terrace landscapes.

Finally, as our aim is to decolonise our minds we are searching for new perceptions and sensibilities about the landscape expressed in the work of artists and the terrace guardians in the mountains of this world.

Here we publish - to start with - the design project of Prof. Ueno Yuji from Nagaoka in Japan promoting scarecrow competitions for the protection of rice fields (Tanada) against birds.

Figure

A Novel Approach to Scarecrows in Japanese Rice Terraces (Photo Stories)

Yuji UENO

I will present a novel approach to the use of scarecrows in Japan’s rice terraces based on their introduction to the rice terraces in Hirei village in Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture. These scarecrows stand above the rice terraces of Hirei village, a very famous rice-growing area on the northwest coast of Honshu Island in Japan. The concept is based on the idea that “scarecrows are farmers and friends”. Therefore, the appearance of the scarecrows should be friendly and funny.

Figure 1
Figure 1. Overlooking Hirei rice terraces and three scarecrows ~ rabbit, raccoon and bear. Rabbit and raccoon, who are friends, carry rice balls for a picnic lunch, and the bear, carrying a salmon for his lunch, asks to join them.

View of the rice terraces of Hirei

Scarecrows with a human shape

Scarecrows with an animal shape and others

The chase goes on and on!

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the farmers of Hirei Village and to the students of the Nagaoka Institute of Design who participated in the Hirei Kakashi Project.

Figure 2
Figure 2. Hi! How are you? Good day today!
Figure 3
Figure 3. The scarecrow says to the farmer ”I can help you, my friend.”
Figure 4
Figure 4. Bottlecap people. (Use plastic bottlecaps)
Figure 5
Figure 5. In the misty rain, a cat woman stands with her cat. “We are checking the water conditions in the rice terraces.”
Figure 6
Figure 6. A man and two dogs dancing on a rice terrace
Figure 7
Figure 7. A newborn horse is standing next to the rice terraces. In the past, all villagers in this village had farm horses.
Figure 8
Figure 8. A sheep teacher and 6 lamb students take a field trip to visit the rice terraces.
Figure 9
Figure 9. A guardian mantis of the rice field. Mantises are believed to protect the rice by eating pests (although they actually eat both the good and bad insects).
Figure 10
Figure 10. This is a bear family that really likes art, as they all frame beautiful terraced landscapes with their picture frames.
Figure
Figure
Figure 13
Figure 13. A raccoon and a rabbit run away from the dogs, and I run after the dogs
Figure 14
Figure 14. In fact, I run away from a bear!
Figure 15
Figure 15. In fact, the bear runs away from a snake!
Figure

References

  1. Ueno, Y. (2017) Yuji Ueno Works: The Hirei Kakashi(Scarecrow) Project. Niigata Japan: Niigata Nippo Company.Figure 15. In fact, the bear runs away from a snake!THE ART OF TERRACED LANDSCAPES JOURNAL2020 VOL. 1 NUM. 1 19

About the authors

  1. 1 Nagaoka Institute of Design

Rights and permissions

Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source and indicate if changes were made.

About this article

Cite this article

Ueno, Y. (2020). A Novel Approach to Scarecrows in Japanese Rice Terraces (Photo Stories). The Art of Terraced Landscapes, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4753239

Published
October 2020
Journal
The Art of Terraced Landscapes, ISSN 2754-7620 (Online)
  • terraces
  • art
  • terraced landscape

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