Discussion

Kakashi

Farmers in ancient Japan believed that a kami (a deity) would come down from the mountains in the spring and inhabit the bodies of their kakashi (scarecrows) protecting the fields. Crows landing on the kakashi would whisper secrets in the kami's ears so that he was known as a God of all knowledge, though he couldn't move.

About Rice

Rice is one of the most important crops in the world. A member of the grass family, it is a staple food for over half the world's population, especially in Asia and Africa. After sugarcane and maize (corn, etc.), it is the third most grown crop, but sugarcane and maize have other uses than human consumption.

Rice is most frequently grown in water-flooded rice paddies. In hilly areas, terracing is often used to increase arable land. The photo below was taken in Japan.

Once growth is well established, water-flooded fields are no longer needed, and they become like this area in Vietnam.

Rice does not need to be grown in water in order to be successful. The simple, ancient practice of flooding rice fields increases crop yield by taking advantage of rice's tolerance for water. Potentially competing plants--weeds, etc.-- often can not survive in such an environment, eliminating them from competition. Water also acts as a barrier to some harmful insects and pathogens.

Rice plants have a fairly simple anatomy.

Much more detailed anatomy illustrations with a lot more technical botanical terms exist, but this is fine for our needs. The panicles are comparable to those of other plants where the flowers are composed of masses of bunched florets. Hydrangea is a good example.

Rice plants have both male and female parts and self pollinate. Rice grains, the rice plant's seeds, then replace the panicle's florets. If not harvested, seeds fall off to start a new cycle.

Most people are familiar with white rice and brown rice, and there is something out there called wild rice, but there are many rice types with a variety of colors. Nutritional quality varies depending in the type and the amount of processing it has gone through.

A common characteristic of rice plants is that they tend to absorb more arsenic (a carcinogen) from the soil than most other food plants.  The amount is low enough that adults aren't likely to be affected, but for the sake of children's health, governments are putting limits on how many parts per billion (ppb) of arsenic makes it into rice-based baby food.

California is a major rice producer in the United States, mainly in the Sacramento delta area. The use of technology is helpful. At the beginning of the growing season, the soil in what will be rice paddies is infused with fertilizer and graded extremely flat using laser guidance. Paddies are then flooded to an even depth of approximately 2 inches of water. Pre-saturated rice grains are sewn over the paddies evenly with the use of modified crop duster air planes. Special genetic strains of rice are being developed with shorter stalks. This is expected to reduce the amount of rice plants blown over and ruined by wind storms. Other genetic developments are producing plants with greater rice yields and higher levels of nutrition. Super foods indeed.

Most other sparrow species resemble the house sparrow with some variation. An exception is the Arabian golden sparrow.

House sparrows are typically about 6 inches long and weigh little over an ounce. They originated in the middle east and spread along with agriculture to other parts of the world. Though sparrows live in the wild, they thrive around humans with whom they have been associated for over 10,000 years. Sparrows were introduced to North America when they were deliberately released in New York City in 1852. Estimates are that the world population of house sparrows is roughly 1.4 billion. Culturally, house sparrows are associated with home and family.

Artwork

Kusumi Morikage (1620–1690)

Morikage came from Kaga Provence in central Honshu, ruled by the Maeda clan. He trained with the Kanō school in Kyōtō until he had a falling out with his master, the great Kanō Tan'yū, after which he returned to Kaga Province where he became the official painter of the Maeda clan. He was greatly admired by other Kanō school artists. Morikage is noted for his representation of farmers and the poor.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 – 1858)

Hiroshige may have produced kacho-ga (birds & flowers pictures) with sparrows and rice in them, but if so, I haven't been able to find any. Rice was in many of his prints, however, like this number from his Famous Places in the Eastern Capital series (1832  – 1838). (Note the group on the left working in the field.) This one is titled Spiral Hall at the Temple of the Five Hundred Arhats. There are no sparrows in this landscape unless some are hiding in the rice fields.

Utagawa Sadahide (1807-1879)

Sadahide was a gifted pupil of Utagawa Kunisada (1786 – 1865). He produced mostly single prints and book illustrations. He also documented Western influence on Japanese art pictorially in the early years after Japan's opening to the West. The print below is one of his earlier works, one of a set of kachō-ga produced in 1834.

Hara Zaisen (Japanese, 1849–1916)

Zaisen became the fourth head of the Hara school 1862 when he was just 13 years old, and in 1867, he was chosen to represent Japan at the Paris International Exhibition, an event that so impressed the Western art world that it influenced the course of Western art, especially among French Impressionists. This print was produced in 1910.

Rice Paddy Art (2021)

For more than an decade, a park in Gyoda, Saitama Prefecture, Japan, has been "painting" what Guinness World Records has called the largest artwork of its kind in the world. At close to 7 acres in size, this picture, inspired by ukiyo-e prints, is "painted" with four different colors of rice plants grown from seeds at the site. It can only be properly seen from a 50-meter tall platform. On the ground, it looks like an ordinary rice field.