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Japan's 'rice paddy art' blends modern technology and ancient crops to make living artwork

It's just different varieties of rice planted for just the right perspective.

Wikimedia Commons contributors

Rice paddy art in the village of Inakadate, Japan

When you think of Japanese art, you might picture woodblock prints, calligraphy, meticulously sculpted bonsai trees, or other traditional art forms. But a new art form has sprung up—quite literally—in Japan that blends the ancient with the new, much to visitors' delight.

If you travel out to Inakadate village in the northern part of Japan’s large island of Honshu, you might come across a massive, living piece of art that you can only truly appreciate from above. “Rice paddy art,” known as tanbo art in Japan, are massive land "paintings" created using only different varieties of rice for the shapes, colors, and shading.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

The Inakadate area is known for its rice production and has been growing rice for over 2,000 years, but like many rural areas, it was beginning see a decline in population and economic viability in the later 20th century. According to Japanese snack maker Sakura, in the early 1990s, an Inakadate village employee named Koichi Hanada came up with an idea to create art in the rice fields using ancient rice varieties with purple and yellow leaves. He had seen elementary school kids planting them as part of a rice cultivating experience and thought it could help draw tourism to the area.

The idea has evolved into a full-blown tourist attraction. The first exhibition of rice paddy art was held in 1993 and has been held every year since. For the first few years, the art was quite simple, but gradually grew more complex. In 2003, the Mona Lisa was created, but it was noted that when viewed from above she looked a little chubby. That’s when computer modeling came in.

Fixing the perspective via computer design allowed for more elaborate, realistic rice paddy art to be created. Now, over 1,000 volunteers come together each May to plant the rice to create the artwork designed on the computer. And the designs are undeniably impressive.

I mean, look at this:

rice paddy art, tanbo art, inakadate village, japan, rice paddy View of 2012 rice paddy artwork titled “Hibo Kannon and Acala”.Wikimedia Commons contributors


Rice paddy art has spread from Inakadate village in Aomori prefecture to other rice-growing areas of Japan. The tanbo art in Gyoda was certified by the Guinness World Records as The World’s Largest Rice Paddy Art in 2015, and it's only gotten more impressive since then. Today's rice paddy artwork is often centered around popular anime and manga characters.

In October of 2023, the rice paddy artists of Gyoda created a 3-D rice paddy art by only harvesting the rice around the characters' faces, creating an even more mind-blowing effect, albeit temporary. The 3-D image was viewable for just about a month.

The impermanent nature of rice paddy art is part of what makes it so intriguing for people to see. Tourists from around the world come to see the living artwork and view it from tall buildings and observation towers.

Rice has been such an important part of the Japanese diet that it's sometimes called the essence of the culture. In fact, the word for cooked rice—gohan—is the same as the word for "meal" or "food." Japan's humid climate and mountainous topography with an abundance of water make it an ideal place to grow rice, and while rice consumption in Japan has been declining for some years, most Japanese meals still include it.

Of course, Japan is not the only country that grows rice; rice is certainly a staple in dozens of other countries as well. Even rice paddy art has made it's way to other countries, including China, which has developed its own traditions around the practice in some areas.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Communities coming together to create art for others to enjoy is always heartwarming, and to see the evolution in how one person's idea has grown into a blend of high-tech innovation and low-tech communal planting is cool for us all to see.

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Teen with autism makes record-breaking Jenga block tower, inspiring Hallmark holiday movie

15-year-old Auldin Maxwell, who stacked an astonishing 1,840 Jenga pieces all on one single block, says using them helps tap into his creativity.

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Maxwell hold two Jenga-realted world records

At the ripe old age of fifteen, Auldin Maxwell is already breaking world records and inspiring Hallmark movies.

Maxwell landed his first spot in the Guinness World Records in November 2020, when he successfully balanced 693 Jenga blocks all on top of one vertical facing Jenga block.

Only four months later, he broke his own record by stacking 1,400 Jenga blocks onto one vertical block, more than doubling the original amount. He then broke the record for most Jenga GIANT blocks (500) stacked on top of a single vertical Jenga GIANT block.

And now, 15, Maxwell has re-broken both of his previous records—with a tower of 900 Jenga GIANT blocks, and a staggering pile of 1,840 regular Jenga blocks.

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Maxwell's story inspired a Hallmark holiday movie titled "World Record Christmas"

Screenshot from Guinness Word Records/Youtube

Maxwell, who is on the autism spectrum, told Guinness World Records that his passion came naturally, saying that he had “one or two Jenga sets, and I just started building different designs and came up with stacking ideas.”

He even watched videos of different Jenga block records, and when he realized he had enough pieces to attempt breaking the most Jenga blocks on a vertical Jenga block, he became determined to do so.

Though it involved a lot of trial and error, eventually Maxwell had a system in place—starting each attempt with another enjoyable activity like riding his unicycle or playing basketball, listening to music while working and taking a half hour break when he felt the structure might collapse to allow for a fresh perspective.

“For me, it’s an engineering challenge, and using them really taps into my creativity!” he said.

Maxwell’s accomplishments have also inspired a heartwarming Hallmark movie titled “A World Record Christmas,” which debuted on 16 November.

The story centers around a neurodivergent boy named Charlie who, like Maxwell, is set on earning a title for Guinness World Records by stacking 1,400 Jenga blocks on top of one single vertical Jenga block.

Charlie gets the opportunity to fulfill this dream on Christmas Eve, which becomes a community event that raises money for children with autism.

You can watch Maxwell in action below, courtesy of Guinness World Records. It’s pretty incredible to watch, not to mention nerve-wracking. But then again anxiety is all part of what makes Jenga fun. And unlike most Jenga towers, this one doesn’t wobble at all.

Enjoy.

Humanity truly never runs out of unique discoveries.

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11-year-old is the world's youngest opera singer and can sing in eight different languages

She even sings in her sleep, according to her mom.

ABC4|YouTube

11-year-old girl is the youngest opera singer in the world.

The majority of 11-year-olds are perfectly content balancing the pre-teen life with Barbie dolls and tinted lipgloss. But one pre-teen is busy breaking records. Victory Brinker is an 11-year-old opera prodigy who was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's youngest opera singer in 2019 when she was almost 8 years old.

If you like opera—or even if you don't—hearing her vocal range of three octaves and voice control is impressive. When it comes to singing, control of your breath, pitch and tone can be difficult, especially when you're without years of classical training. Victory's skill is so impressive that when she appeared on America's Got Talent last year, she was given the "golden buzzer," which sends you straight to the finalist round in Hollywood.

Her impressive chops have also landed her trips around the country, an opportunity to sing at the Steelers game and even a couple of flights across the globe.

"I've gone to Paris. I've gone to Milan, Italy," Victory told ABC4. As for the Steelers game, she said it was cold.

Victory is one of 11 children, and while the rest of the world is just finding out about her talent and want to hear more from her, her siblings would like for her to cut back on the singing. This shouldn't come as a surprise since most siblings are less impressed by what their brother or sister can do than people who don't have to live with them.

Victory's siblings being over her constant singing doesn't deter the pint-sized opera powerhouse; she simply sings to her stuffed animals. The singer is also able to sing in multiple languages, so when she's done annoying her siblings in English she can choose from a list of languages to sing in.

"English, of course. Latin, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Korean and Ukrainian," Victory revealed to ABC4.

Listen to Victory belt out a familiar opera tune below:

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A 100-year-old neurologist who's still working shares his secrets to longevity

Guinness World Records named him 'world's oldest practicing doctor.'

via St. Vincent Charity Health

Dr. Howard Tucker from St. Vincent Charity Medical Center.

Dr. Howard Tucker added another honor to his illustrious career last year when the Guinness Book of World Records named him the world’s oldest practicing doctor. At the time, the neurologist was 99 years old and still seeing patients.

Now, at the age of 100, he told TODAY he recently stopped seeing patients but keeps himself busy teaching medical residents at St. Vincent Charity Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, twice a week.

Dr. Tucker believes his long career is a major reason for his incredible longevity. “I look upon retirement as the enemy of longevity,” Tucker told TODAY.

The doctor was born in 1922, graduated from The Ohio State University College of Medicine in 1947 and served as a Navy neurologist during the Korean War. “Anyone who was discharged from the Navy for neurological reasons, if his residence was east of the Mississippi, I had to examine him before he could be discharged,” Tucker told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Dr. Tucker practiced neurology at a time when CT scans and MRIs didn’t exist, so diagnosed his patients using little more than his knowledge of medicine.

“We used to have to really think through a problem because there weren’t any diagnostic tools of that magnitude,” Tucker told JTA. “We used to agonize over a problem. Is this a pattern of a tumor? Is this a pattern of abnormality with a stroke? In those days we had to work harder, but it was fun.”

It’s no surprise that, as a neurologist, he believes keeping mentally active is the secret to a long life. He told News 5 Cleveland that he tries to learn something new every day with a focus on new advancements in the medical field.

He stresses the fact that people should remain active as they age, whether that means staying in their careers or engaging in mentally challenging hobbies.

“I think that to retire, one can face potential shriveling up and ending in a nursing home. It’s fun staying alive and working," he told TODAY. “It’s delightful work. Every day I learn something new.

“I’m going to caution (people): If they retire from their work, they should at least do something as a hobby, whether it be communal work or self-hobbies,” he continued, “you need a stimulus for the brain daily.”

Dr. Tucker clearly knows what he’s talking about both as a centenarian and a medical professional. A 2016 study of 3,000 adults published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health found that staying at work for an extra year reduced the risk of dying from any cause by 11%, over the following 20 years.

"Retiring earlier would seem healthy because you might escape a stressful workplace or have more time to exercise—a few studies have shown this," CBC longevity columnist Sharon Basaraba said. "But more and larger studies have concluded that early retirement is actually a risk factor for early death."

Dr. Tucker attributes his longevity partially to his genetics because his mother lived to be 84 and his father, 96. But lifestyle habits are important, too. “Everything in moderation, except no cigarette smoking—that’s about it,” he told TODAY.

He also has a philosophy he lives by.

"Study each day as if you were to live forever, and live each day as if you were to die tomorrow," he told WKYC. "I've carried that with me all the time."

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