Japan’s Wara Art Festival Celebrates Rice ‘ith Art

Rice is a staple of Japanese cuisine and widely used around the country. It’s harvested in the fall, traditionally by hand, although the machines are doing most of the work these days. After the harvest, the rice grains are taken out which leaves rice straw, or wara, leftovers. The annual Wara Art Festival in Niigata City is a festival that celebrates wara by using it for art sculptures. 

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Rice straw is typically used as a livestock food and building material, but there’s so much of it that the new uses are always welcome. In 2008, the city of Niigata (located in a big rice-producing region) worked together with locals and art students from Tokyo to establish the Wara Art Festival. The sculptures were made and exhibited at several locations, becoming an instant success. 

The festival was held every year since 2008, but in 2020 it had to be canceled due to thee COVID-19 pandemic. Each year, there’s a theme that determines what kind of sculptures will be displayed. The sculptures are made by artists and art students in collaboration with the locals.

“Making Wara Art began when it was suggested that it would be interesting to create artworks using the large amounts of rice straw in the paddy fields, which cover roughly half the area of Nishikan Ward,” reads Niikata city’s website.