Rice terraces were used to be common sight on Japan’s mountainsides and valleys, and they are often described as unspoiled Japanese landscapes for their age-old beauty.
According to the Terraced Field Network, it is not exactly clear when rice paddy terraces were built in Japan, but they are believed to have existed before mid-6th century.
“Hamanoura no Tanada,” located in the southwestern prefecture of Saga, is one of such scenic terraced rice fields and has become a popular tourist destination. Like a staircase running up from the coast facing the Genkai Sea, a total of 283 terraced rice fields create different scenes of natural beauty depending on the daily weather.
In particular, after rice planting, the setting sun dyes rice paddies orange, making the formative art of the sky, sea, paddy fields and ridges even more magnificent.
In 1999, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries named the area as one of the”100 Best Rice Terraces in Japan.” The ministry also certified 271 excellent rice terraces for “Connecting Rice Terrace Heritage-Pride of Hometown to the Future” last year, including Saga prefecture’s “Hamanoura no Tanada,” where the local people are working to preserve them and maintain the scenic landscape.
Source: Kuwait News Agency
