Giant Straw Animals Invade Japanese Fields After Rice Harvest And They Are Absolutely Badass
Fall is a season of harvesting, and festivals to celebrate it are currently taking place all over the world. In Northern Japan, the Wara Art Festival recently rang in the September-October rice season, and it’s a wildly inventive and fun way to repurpose rice straw left over from the harvest.
Wara Art Festival has been taking place in Niigata City since 2008, where it began as a creative collaboration between the city’s tourism division and the Musashino Art University. Rice straw was once widely used in Japan to produce various goods, such as tatami mats, but has now been replaced by wood and plastic in most instances. The students of Musashino worked together to fill the fields of Niigata with giant animal sculptures made of bound rice straw, and they’ve been doing it every year since then.
Check out the best displays from the 2017 festival below, and definitely put a trip to Japan on your fall to-do list for next year.
More info: Wara Art Festival (Japanese), Facebook
Image credits: Wara Art Matsuri
Image credits: Wara Art Matsuri
Image credits: Wara Art Matsuri
Image credits: Wara Art Matsuri
Image credits: Wara Art Matsuri
Image credits: Wara Art Matsuri
Image credits: Wara Art Matsuri
Image credits: Wara Art Matsuri
Image credits: Wara Art Matsuri
Image credits: Wara Art Matsuri
Image credits: Wara Art Matsuri
Image credits: Wara Art Matsuri
Image credits: Wara Art Matsuri
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Share on FacebookLove it, and the artists all look like they are having a great time doing this!
Creature's name from 1 to 5 King Kong Crocodon Bonyip Japanese Buffalo Rhinosaurus (i know its rhinocerous, but that is a monster's name)
Load More Replies...The photos where the people are gathered around statues are the best!
They do this at the U.S. National Straw Sculpting Competition in Mt. Morris, Illinois. Go see it in person. They are impressive.
Someone please make a dragon one and let me ride it, my dream come true ha! These are absolutely majestic, massive applause to those who made these. So cool!
I've been living in a neighbouring prefecture to Niigata for a decade and had never heard of this until now. Definitely on my to-do list!
Stunning artworks, but in Germany such couldn´t be built, lately some idiot burnt down all the hay bales that the farmers had left there to dry over night in some regions, a giant damage´s been done because that hay´d been meant to be fed to horses etc., and that fire devil hasn´t even been caught at all yet, still runs around free, I know these artworks´re made of straw, but hay and straw burn in the same way... 😲😲😲 Thumbs up for these people there in Japan who spent hours and hours building these!!!
Truly, these lovely Japanese can create a festival at the slightest provocation!
What an amazing art form. Only the Japanese could be so talented!
I wonder how a depection of Jesus would be if it was done in straw by this artest?
this is very nice and demonstration of team work..using organic material for art.... kudos www.etimes.com.ng
this is creative, I must say and cute...nice and artistic www.etimes.com.ng
we make giant demon statues from hay and rice straw and then watch them burn down.
This is awesome! I imagined farming as a lot of things this is a new level of playng at work!
HELLO HELLO That's it !!!! Sent me simply "YES I WANT" You are in the worry of realizing Dreams, Projects paying all your debts and benefiting from court financing on; only one Contact address: brigittelechner0025@gmail.com brigittelechner0025@gmail.com
The people building those animals are students - I guess it's like building a snowman or a sandcastle with friends.
Load More Replies...Love it, and the artists all look like they are having a great time doing this!
Creature's name from 1 to 5 King Kong Crocodon Bonyip Japanese Buffalo Rhinosaurus (i know its rhinocerous, but that is a monster's name)
Load More Replies...The photos where the people are gathered around statues are the best!
They do this at the U.S. National Straw Sculpting Competition in Mt. Morris, Illinois. Go see it in person. They are impressive.
Someone please make a dragon one and let me ride it, my dream come true ha! These are absolutely majestic, massive applause to those who made these. So cool!
I've been living in a neighbouring prefecture to Niigata for a decade and had never heard of this until now. Definitely on my to-do list!
Stunning artworks, but in Germany such couldn´t be built, lately some idiot burnt down all the hay bales that the farmers had left there to dry over night in some regions, a giant damage´s been done because that hay´d been meant to be fed to horses etc., and that fire devil hasn´t even been caught at all yet, still runs around free, I know these artworks´re made of straw, but hay and straw burn in the same way... 😲😲😲 Thumbs up for these people there in Japan who spent hours and hours building these!!!
Truly, these lovely Japanese can create a festival at the slightest provocation!
What an amazing art form. Only the Japanese could be so talented!
I wonder how a depection of Jesus would be if it was done in straw by this artest?
this is very nice and demonstration of team work..using organic material for art.... kudos www.etimes.com.ng
this is creative, I must say and cute...nice and artistic www.etimes.com.ng
we make giant demon statues from hay and rice straw and then watch them burn down.
This is awesome! I imagined farming as a lot of things this is a new level of playng at work!
HELLO HELLO That's it !!!! Sent me simply "YES I WANT" You are in the worry of realizing Dreams, Projects paying all your debts and benefiting from court financing on; only one Contact address: brigittelechner0025@gmail.com brigittelechner0025@gmail.com
The people building those animals are students - I guess it's like building a snowman or a sandcastle with friends.
Load More Replies...
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