Hiroshima: UNESCO-Designated Japanese Rice-Planting Ritual Takes Place to Music Rhythm

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:03 JST, June 21, 2025

KITA-HIROSHIMA, Hiroshima — Mibu no Hana Taue, a rice planting ritual to pray for a good harvest, took place on June 1 in Kita-Hiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture, drawing thousands of visitors.

Under a clear sky, 13 cows adorned with golden saddles, colorful clothes and banners plowed an about 800-square-meter rice paddy. Next, a local music troupe of about 70 members participated in the ritual. Female members of the troupe dressed in kimonos and straw hats, known as saotome, planted rice seedlings by hand to a song for rice planting work and the sound of flutes and drums played by the troupe.

This event is registered as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage and also designated in Japan as an intangible folk cultural property.

The event attracted 6,000 people, according to a nonprofit group to preserve the ritual.

“I could watch the black cattle plowing up close, and the scene was more intense than I had expected,” said a 32-year-old man from Hiroshima who visited the event for the first time. “I want this tradition to be preserved.”

This year, a group from Jeonbuk State in southwestern South Korea joined the event to perform traditional songs and dances before the ritual.