Mibu no Hanataue

Origin

Here the planting of rice is itself the rite, inscribed by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage in November 2011. Oxen are led into the flooded field and drag a harrow to break the soil, and then, to drums and song, the seedlings go in. The song is led by the *sanbai*, whose role is to receive the deity of the field. **It is not a reconstruction staged for viewing: the field is really planted.**

What to look for

It opens with a procession of oxen in decorated saddles and flowers — twelve or thirteen of them in recent years, coming from Kitahiroshima and neighbouring towns. In the field the planters — the *saotome* — move backwards in a line, setting the seedlings to the *sanbai*’s lead and the drumming from the bank. The tourism association records that into the 1950s several dozen decorated oxen would come in from across the district, and more than two hundred people took part.

How to watch

Do not step onto the field banks, and keep clear of the route the oxen take. **The work is the rite, so do not call out in a way that interrupts it.** The ground by the field is poor and mud carries, even in fine weather.

If you go

**It happens on a single day, fixed to the first Sunday of June.** It runs in daylight — the procession through the shopping street first, the planting after — so reckon on late morning to late afternoon. The site sits near the Chiyoda interchange of the Chūgoku Expressway; from Hiroshima station an express bus reaches Chiyoda in about an hour, with a transfer run to the field. By car there is free parking at the town hall and a local school, with a shuttle to the site. You will be standing beside a flooded field: bring rain gear and shoes you do not mind.

Where

Mibu, Kitahiroshima

Kitahiroshima, Hiroshima

Sources

• Kitahiroshima Tourism Association
• Town of Kitahiroshima, official page
• Hiroshima Prefecture, stating the first-Sunday rule