Imagine! Padifield Art!

These padi fields look fantastic from the sky if you are in an aeroplane.

This is crop art, found in Japan. Stunning, don't you think so?

Believe me, this is no alien creation - the designs have been cleverly planted. The farmers creating these huge displays use no ink or dye.





Instead, different colours of rice plants have been precisely and strategically arranged and grown in the paddy fields.As summer progresses and the plants shoot up, the detailed artwork begins to emerge.

In Inakadate, a Sengoku warrior on horseback has been created from hundreds of thousands of rice plants, the colours created by using different varieties. The largest and finest work is grown in the Aomori village of Inakadate, 600 miles north of Toyko, where this tradition began in 1993. Each year hundreds of volunteers and villagers plant four different varieties of rice in late May across huge swathes of paddy fields.The village has now earned a reputation for its agricultural artistry.

In a pair of fields near the townhall in Inakadate town, the enormous pictures of Napoleon and a Sengoku-period warrior, both on horseback, are visible More than 150,000 vistors come to Inakadate (population:8,700 ), every summer to see these extraordinary murals. Created by precision planting and months of planning,the mural of Napolean on horseback can be seen brilliantly from the skies.

Another venue is becoming famous for padi art. This is Yonezawa town. This year the town showcased the fictional warrior Naoe Kanetsugu and his wife Osen from the hit television series Tenchijin.

Smaller works of crop art can also be seen in some other rice-farming areas. This include Doraemon and deer dancers.

How are the art pieces created? To begin with, farmers will plant little purple and yellow-leafed kodaimai rice, along with their local green-leafed tsugaru roman variety. This helps create the coloured patterns between planting and harvesting in September.The murals in Inakadate cover 15,000 square metres of paddy fields.

From ground level, the designs are invisible. So interested viewers have to climb on to the mock castle tower of the village office to get a glimpse of the work.

So, don't you think the Japanese are just wonderfully artistic people?