Bringing in the Sheaves

handing out sickles

What a fun day today was! I harvested rice for about five hours today with about twenty other people. While that may not sound like fun to everyone, I had a great time.

This adventure started back in May when I was invited to plant rice at Tanakasan's farm. I wasn't able to attend that event, but I did participate in the harvest which he had kindly invited me to. I enjoy doing new things and meeting new people so I was looking forward to harvest day.

Saturday morning I took the 9:00 am train to Mamada station and as always, rode my folding bike. The farm is in southern Tochigi prefecture, about an hour's total time travel from Utsunomiya station to the farm. On the way I pedaled across the Omoi River (思川）and then past rice fields and farms to Tanakasan's farm in Fujioka, a small village of traditional layout; buildings in the center and fields surrounding. I arrived at 10:00 am, starting time, registered to get my rice, and then we were off to the field.

The field

First we got out sickles, then a lesson in how to cut and stack rice. Rice is planted in bunches and so grows in concentrated little groups in the field. We were taught how to cut the rice at the right height which is fairly low to the ground, and then were shown how to stack it. First you cut about four groupings of rice called a kabu, and then  lay it on the ground. You then cut two more bunches of four and lay those on the first in an X. So there were about twenty of us cutting rice plants and stacking them in Xs throughout the field. This took about an hour and a half, after which we broke for lunch.

Lunch was amazing. Everything was homemade and local except the fish. We had new rice made from the last crop that had been dried a few weeks before, simmered Chinese melon, sweet potatoes and squash simmered in soy sauce, cucumber and eggplant pickles, hokke and sanma, which are quite oily  fish, sweet deep fried tofu skins stuffed with new rice, and for dessert, deliciously cold figs, grapes and pear apples. What a treat!

After lunch it was back to the field to tie the sheaves and hang them from a bamboo rack. We were taught how to tie the sheaves with straw which was easier than I thought. I learned first so I ended up teaching a lot of the Japanese how to do it. You take about four or five strands of straw, wrap them around the sheave, tie it in a half hitch, twist the loose ends together as if making a straw rope, and then slip it behind the half hitch. It stays. It works. It's simple. It's ingenious. It's a dying art.

how to stack rice

Everyone got into the act. We gathered sheaves, tied them up and hung them upside down on the rack. Everyone did something. Some tied sheaves, some hung them. The little kids chased frogs and watched the guppies in the irrigation ditches. It was hot, but everyone worked hard. It was fun. We even gleaned so there was not much waste.

figs from the farm

It was impressive that the process had almost no waste. The rice straw will be used to tie sheaves next year and the rice will be eaten, of course. It's a seamless process so different from the agriculture I see nowadays.

We finished up at about 3:00. The people from Tokyo set off home by car. The carless were chauffeured to Nogi station for the train ride back home, and I set off on my bike back to Mamada station. Again, riding past rice fields with tassels heavy, others where harvest was taking place, across the Omoi River again, up a long, but not so steep hill to Mamada station.

hanging rice sheaves

After arrival it was the ritual of taking the bike apart, putting its cover on, taking the elevator to the platform, waiting for the train, strapping it to a bar and finding a seat. I was beat, but happy. A great day being with nice folks. I am a lucky guy.