Rice and IP - A recipe for revitalization

• Pages: 13-15

Tanbo

art – l iving artwork made from differ ent va-

rieties of r ice to create giant im ages in rice pad-

dies – is a unique effort to revitalize rura l commu-

nities in Japan. Th e WIPO Japan Office caught up

with th e creators of this excitin g and increa singly

popular new form of art istic expres sion and with

leaders of a small community which is taking it

one step further by using the intellectual proper-

ty (IP) system.

Breathing new life into

rural communities

In front of the swaying rice paddies across from

the I nakadate vi llage hall on a su mmer’s day, i t is

hard to see wha t all the fuss is about. But from the

vantage point of the mock castle tha t sit s ato p

the village hall of this small farming communit y

600 k ilometers nor th of Tokyo in the Aom ori pre-

fecture, all is r evealed. Wh at at ground level ap-

pears to be an ord inary rice field be comes, 20 me-

ters higher up, a l iving work of ar t depic ting

famous Jap anese warriors, intricately craf ted from

tens of thousands of rice plants .

A creative solution

to a widespread problem

Tanbo

art, whi ch first appeared in Inakadate in

1993, is sweeping the count ry, from t he island of

Hokkai do in the north to the so uthern island of

Kyushyu. Th e phenomenon is also gaining p opu-

larity in the Republ ic o f K orea. In the early 90s,

with an aging populat ion of just over 8,000 in-

habitants, many young pe ople havi ng moved to

the city, In akadate’s lo cal gov ernment sought

ways to revitalize its local economy, create jobs

and attract people back to the community. One

cold wi nter’s day v illage leade rs called a meeting

of local residents to try to f ind a soluti on.

Since In akadate had no real tourist at tractions,

someone su ggested they draw on the village’s

centuries -old tradit ion of ric e cultivation using

different c olored plants to c reate giant rice p addy

art –

tanbo

art – to bring v isitors to th e village.

The local govern ment-sponsored Village Re vita-

lization Committe e (V RC) id entified a suitabl e

2,500m2f ield a djacent to the villa ge hal l – ideal

because the vil lage hall’s mock cast le provided a

perfect viewing point. The VRC then faced the more

difficu lt task o f choosing and creat ing a des ign.

Choosing a design

To keep things si mple, the communit y decided to

create an image of M ount Iwaki, a famous mou n-

tain v isible from Inakadate, along wi th the wor ds

“

Inakadate, a vill age of rice cult ure

”. Hand d rawn by

a local art teac her, the design was plotte d onto a

diagram and ma pped onto a field which was then

planted with three unique v arieties of ric e, each

with dif ferent colored leaves.

Inakad ate’s local gover nment organi zed a pro-

gram of eve nts around the

tanbo

art progr am,

which encouraged communit y involvem ent and

attracted touris ts to the village. Members of t he

local community as well as tourist s were invited

to help plant the rice at an event in Jun e, a nd

again in October to help with the rice harve st. All

who to ok part in these events l unched on

onigiri

(rice ba lls) made from the previous year’s harvest .

They we re also give n tickets to exchange for two

kilogram s of the

tanbo

art ric e they had helpe d to

harvest at the annual November festival. As this

living ar twork grew, so did the nu mber of tourists,

and b y the e arly 2000s Inakadat e’s

tanbo

art pro-

gram was attracting national atte ntion.

Increasing the scale

With growing numbers of visitors and increasing

media attention, the villagers decided to take the

project to another level. Local landholders and the

village government formally agreed to set aside ad-

ditional land adjacent to the village hall, resulting in

some 15,000 m2of land being used for

tanbo

art.

RICE AND IP

A Recipe for Revitalization

13

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Mount Iwaki,

the first design

created by Inakadate

residents.

Photo: Inakadate Village Hall