Category Archives: Photos

【News】Scarecrow of the future – Akita Prefectural University develops a robot to drive away wildlife from crops (April 11, 2017)

Akita Prefectural University is working on developing a robotic scarecrow to move around the fields and scare off wild animals which cause damage to crops. Takashi Saito, 47, associate professor at the university’s Department of Machine Intelligence and Systems Engineering specializing in robots, has created three eight-legged and four-legged prototype models, with an aim to complete the robot next year. Saito began developing the prototypes last year based on radio-controlled fighting robots. He said he plans to make practical models equipped with artificial intelligence, adopting moves and designs that wild animals dislike. The robots will be placed on paths running between crop fields in rural villages and make the rounds … Continue reading

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【News】Otaue Matsuri to pray for good harvest of rice (in Katori city, Chiba Prefecture) (Apr. 9, 2017)

Katori Jingu, a shrine located in the Tone-riverside rice production district in Katori city, Chiba Prefecture, holds “otaue matsuri,” or rice-planting festival annually in early April to pray for a good harvest in fall. Several rituals are conducted by local farmers and children including a group of women wearing decorated traditional farmers’ hats to gorgeously announce that the rice planting season is approaching. The festival is held on the first Saturday and Sunday of April every year. This year’s plowing ceremony was held on April 1 in the shrine and the planting ceremony on April 2 at the shrine rice paddy. On April 1, the plowing ceremony began at 1:00 … Continue reading

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【News】Popular Hime Daruma dolls in Oita handed down by a farming family (April 1, 2017)

Hime (princess) Daruma dolls, a traditional handicraft of Takeda, Oita Prefecture, are recently proving so popular that you have to wait as long as three years after placing orders to get them. The red, round dolls with a gentle smile, regarded as a talisman of good luck, are said to bring family happiness and thriving business. The dolls are produced by a Takeda woman and her daughter-in-law, the only family that inherits the tradition handed down since the Edo Period. Because the dolls are made completely by hand, it takes them roughly a week to make one daruma. Meiko Goto, 80, of a rice farming family produces the dolls in … Continue reading

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【News】Our Noh no Ikebana: “Use whole vegetable for dynamic expression” says Takako Hashimoto from Koriyama city, Fukushima Prefecture(Apr. 7, 2017)

Takako Hashimoto, a 62-year-old Noh no Ikebana artist from Koriyama city, Fukushima Prefecture, talks about how thoroughly she enjoys Noh no Ikebana. “I use whole vegetables from stems to leaves to make my arrangements lively and energetic. Take sweet potatoes for example. By using leaves and vines which are turning yellow, I can describe how they grow in the field.” “I also enjoy working with friends. This is the arrangement for the general meeting of the female group of an agricultural cooperative of Sakura Koriyama region in Fukushima Prefecture (JA Fukushima Sakura Koriyama Region) and I made it with the members of the female group. The main character is a … Continue reading

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【News】Colorful “kimigara” slippers made of corn husks gaining popularity (March 19, 2017)

Slippers made by women of farms in Aomori Prefecture using dried corn husks are recently becoming popular as they are colorful, light and do not become stuffy. The slippers, named “kimigara” from an Aomori dialect “kimi” meaning corn and “kara” meaning husks, are the traditional craftwork handed down in Towada, Aomori, for women to work on during the off-season. Husks of dent corn for feed are dried, and a group of 18 local women tear them and braid them into slippers. Skills are necessary to create slippers of same sizes entirely by hand, and one person can only make one pair of slippers a day. The group makes about 100 … Continue reading

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