Around October and November, the third most consumed commodity is harvested. After the grains of rice have been threshed, what is left is rice straw. Historically this straw was used in a variety of products, including tatami mats. Today, straw has been replaced by wood and plastic in most instances.
In Japan, rice straw is called wara. So what to do with all that straw, wara, after a harvest? Put it in the hands of art students from Tokyo’s Musashino Art University and create the Niigata Wara Art Festival.
These creative students from Musashino work to fill the Niigata fields with animal sculptures made of bound wara since 2008. Huge straw gorillas, dinosaurs, and various animals dot the landscape for all to admire.
Photo credit Wara Art Matsuri (Twitter account)
Also included is a timelapse Youtube video of the making of one of these beasts.
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