O-taue-matsuri お田植え祭り

田植え祭 taue-sai

“rice planting festival”

Traditional festival closely associated with rice cultivation. According to Japanese agricultural practices, rice farmers begin raising seeds in spring and plant the young plants in the fields in summer.  Shrines use the same methods when tending the sacred rice fields entrusted to them. At Fushimi Inari Shrine, there is a rice field where rice is grown every year to be offered to Inari, who is worshipped as the god of agriculture and economy. This rice planting ritual – the seedlings blessed by the Shintô priests – also serves as a prayer for a bountiful harvest and shows men and women in historical peasant costumes planting the rice to song and dance.

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Fushimi Inari Shrine / Kyôto City