Tanbo Gakkō-Rice Cropping

*Sorry for the very late entry everyone. I was having trouble accessing my blog. Apparently verification codes cannot be sent to my cellphone to prove that I am indeed human and own this account. Should be fine now. Expect a lot of posts coming your way to make up for lost time! Excuse any errors or lapses in knowledge, its 2:30am here.*

For religion and culture class, we went on a very special trip. The Kokugakuin specializes in Shinto studies and has ties with this particular shrine. The matsuri(festival) is called Tanbo Gakkō and aims to educate people from the city about farming and bring them closer to to nature. The harvest and planting of rice represents fertility in the Shinto religion. Volunteers from the Kokugakuin Shinto studies department and members of a Japanese cultural preservation society helped run the Tanbo Gakkō and keep operations running smoothly. It was a 2 hour bus drive to the shrine and the fields of rice were beautiful. So was the temple.

The people in the green jackets were volunteers

Temple gates

the shrine

There were a ton of families there as well as college students. The we were gathered round and warned about the giant wasps in the forest behind the temple. Our teacher told us that stings from those guys can be lethal. Yikes! Needless to say, I stayed far away! Because it had rained previously, we could not harvest the rice in the morning as scheduled. They wanted it to dry out more, as rice should be dry when cut. Instead, we husked rice that had been previously harvested.There was a large tent erected to cover us and a tarp below for families to sit on. The tools for husking the rice are not what farmers use, but they were very effective for such a large group of amateurs such as ourselves =P

Tools of the trade: a bowl, a baseball, a glass bottle, a wooden rod, and chopsticks.

Separate the grains from the stalk

Roll the baseball over the grains to separate the hull from the bran, afterword, blow gently to get ride of the chaff.

the grains so far. Needs further extraction.

Use a funnel and pour grains into the glass bottle. Gently pound on the rice to remove the bran.

Rice afterward.

Rice free from tyranny.

Our rice was collected and then it was time to make mochi! Mochi is a sticky, pounded rice sweet. They used a very old style rice cooker, using wood to fuel the fire and boil the water. When the rice was cooked, it was dumped into a hollowed out stump. The stump was regularly doused with water so that the mochi wouldn't stick. Then, everyone took turns hammering the rice, even the kids! It was a real team effort! One person would hammer, another would dart in on the upswing the turn the rice over. Then, a pair of people would hammer the rice.

rice cooker.

Striking the mochi rice

Mochi mallet and the tree stump.

my brave partner flipping rice before I swing down. The crowd chants with each strike to help keep a rhythm going.

downswing!

There was also a station for traditional firestarting using a firestarting bow. I forget the name, but I remember trying to do this as a kid. It takes a long time to get an ember! The ember is cradled in a sling of paper and the person wheels it around swiftly to feed the ember oxygen and make it grow. It looked like the kids were winding up at a softball game!

The finished mochi with sweet beans and other seasoning!!

The provided bento. Oishikattadesu!

More mochi was made and then we were off to the fields! We followed the priest, who chanted and shrill flutes played along the way made it seem like we were in a documentary. The fields were breath takingly beautiful. I never knew rice could look so good. The fields were a little muddy, but not bad. The water had dried up by then in paddies. There were little frogs hopping around, and after cutting the rice, I joined the kids in catching frogs. They helped me catch all the colors, even giving me their own because I was a bit too slow to catch more than one. I decided to go barefoot and sadly no one else wanted to brave the mud. If I could get away with it, I wouldn't wear shoes at all. Sensei told us stories of poisonous snakes in the fields to scare us a little. Those scythes sheared through the stalks like they were tissue. It was amazing! Sensei told us that the rack holding a drying bundle of rice was a bed for kami to rest on. I found it adorable.

The priest.

Frog! The field was full of them!

Makes me want to break out the paint.

cropping rice

The bed for the kami

We then walked back, stopping at a little school along the way so that everyone could wash their boots and I washed my feet. When we returned, it was time for the ceremony. A few kids were chosen to present offerings to the kami and they were so proud of their duty. Students from kokugakuin played gagaku, traditional Japanese music, during the ceremony. I have a video below and hopefully you can hear it. The music is very unique. I find it haunting and a bit scary.

Offering for the kami.

The band. I can see sho(mouth organ) and ryuteki(flute).

purification before the ceremony.

The priest.

children bringing the offering to the alter.

Music clip as well as a clip of the offerings.

Afterward, the staff handed out turtles made from rice stalks! They are gorgeous! All the kids and the international students received them. Then, we said our thank yous and goodbyes and took the bus home.

Nicer pictures by my teacher over here ---> http://s27.photobucket.com/user/Peregrinor/library/tanbo_gakko/131006_tanbo_gakko?sort=2&page=1

NEXT UP:

• The Kokugakuin Welcome Party
• Kendo
• Chado
• Oeshiki Festival at Ikegami Honmonji Temple
• Ramen
• Akihabra revisited
•  Moon Viewing Festival
• Traditional Pottery