稻田艺术 Rice Fields Art

Stunning crop art has sprung up across rice fields in Japan.

But this is no alien creation - the designs have been cleverly planted.

Rice-paddy art was started there in 1993 as a local revitalization project,
an idea that grew out of meetings of the village committee.

Closer to the image, the careful placement of thousands of rice plants in
the paddy fields can be seen.

The different varieties of rice plant grow alongside each other to create the masterpieces.

In the first 9 years, the village office workers and local farmers grew a simple design of Mount Iwaki every year.

But their ideas grew more complicated and attracted more attention.

In 2005 agreements between landowners allowed the creation of enormous rice paddy art.

A year later, organizers used computers to precisely plot planting of the 4 differently colored rice varieties that bring the images to life.