Inakadate, the village in northern Japan’s Aomori prefecture famous for their rice paddy art, today unveiled their latest creation. The seeds of their labor, which were planted in June, have now grown and filled out the canvas, rendering versions of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” and Seiki Kuroda’s “Lakeside,” which depicts his wife Taneko Kaneko.
Seven different varieties of rice are planted in early June according to detailed blueprints (pictured above). They take roughly 1 month to grow, slowly filling out and completing the artwork, which was unveiled today in Japan.
Spectators can visit the rice paddy through the months of July and August but the colors begin to fade around mid-August. Can’t make it to Inakadate Village? Don’t worry: last year they started live-streaming their rice paddies and posting daily photos. You can see it all here.
“Mona Lisa” rice paddy art at Inakadate Village (2022)
This is actually Inakadate Village’s 2nd attempt at depicting Mona Lisa in their race paddies. The first was 19 years ago in 2003 and is pictured below. At the time they were only using 3 varieties of rice so their color palette was limited but so was their use of perspective and shading. As you can see, their skills have developed quite significantly over the years.
“Mona Lisa” rice paddy art at Inakadate Village (2003)
August 1, 2022 at 10:49 am
This is brilliant ! I especially love the care that was applied to get the perspective right !