Bucket paddies for growing rice from Sumiyoshi Taisha

The thrill of rice, different from vegetables

In summer 2017, we started the "Kome Kome Club" at Minna no Uen. As the name suggests, it is a club where everyone grows rice together. Still, making a paddy on a farm in the middle of a residential area is not easy. So we decided to try bucket paddies.

In fact, one of our members had been growing rice in a huge water tank on the farm for two years. He shared his know-how generously, and we took on the challenge together. Harvesting rice brings a kind of joy that is different from vegetables. We started out wanting to share that feeling widely.

It began with the rice-planting ritual at Sumiyoshi Taisha

The first session was a visit to the "Otaue Shinji" rice-planting ritual held at nearby Sumiyoshi Taisha. It is an ancient ritual designated as an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property. In fact, every year we receive a share of the rice seedlings raised for this ritual and grow them at Minna no Uen. We went to watch it together, to feel how precious this is with all our senses.

We made our offering and paid the ritual fee, then headed to the sacred paddy where the ritual takes place. We could only watch, captivated, as people in splendid costumes danced and skilled planters set the seedlings in perfectly even rows.

A tiny paddy in a bucket

On July 2, we finally planted our bucket paddies. We had prepared them two weeks earlier by adding soil and water, and the soil was brought over from Parabolic Farm on the farm. The variety is Hinohikari. As an experiment, we varied how we planted, spacing single seedlings apart or planting bundles of three or four, so we could build up know-how little by little.

On sunny days the water temperature rose to nearly 35 degrees Celsius, and we found some challenges. Even so, our first wish was simply that the plants take root well.

Behind the rice are a ritual that has continued for hundreds of years and the life of the community. Growing rice also lets us feel that local climate and the turning of the seasons close at hand. The neighborhood shrine and the farm are connected through rice. The small bucket paddies became the doorway to that.