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Oyama Senmaida

Little knownBarely documented in English. This is the kind of place the site exists for.

調査・執筆 Hinato

Oyama Senmaidarice terracesKamogawailluminationrain-fed

Photo: Tetsuji Sakakibara / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0) · original

Three hundred and seventy-five rice paddies stacked up a steep slope over 3.2 hectares, the closest terraced rice landscape to Tokyo and one of the national hundred best. What makes Oyama Senmaida unusual among Japan's terraces is that it is entirely rain-fed — there is no irrigation channel, the paddies depend on rainfall and the slope, and the whole thing was cut by hand.

It was heading for abandonment in the 1990s, as terraces everywhere were, and was saved by an owner-farmer scheme in which city people rent a paddy and come down to plant and harvest it. That is why it is still worked. Flooded paddies from April reflect the sky; October brings an LED illumination in which the terraces are lit in four colours cycling every fifteen minutes. It is free, and it is ninety minutes from Tokyo.

基本情報

営業時間

Open access | Illumination in the evening during the October event

定休日: Open year-round

料金

Free | Parking at the lower lot

ベストシーズン

April–May for flooded terraces | October for the illumination and the harvest

滞在目安

60–90 minutes

アクセス

アクセス情報

540 Hiratsuka, Kamogawa. From the east exit of JR Awa-Kamogawa Station take the Nagasao or Kanaya route bus about 25 minutes to the Oyama Senmaida Iriguchi stop, then about a short walk following the signs. By car, use the lower Oyama Senmaida car park. Free to visit. During the October illumination a shuttle runs from a temporary car park at the Kamogawa city sports ground.

インサイダーガイド

**April to May for the mirror.** Once the paddies are flooded for planting and before the rice grows, the whole slope reflects the sky. That is the strongest the terraces look. **October is the illumination.** LEDs across the terraces in orange, blue, green and purple, changing every fifteen minutes. It is busy — the organisers ask visitors to arrive after 7:00 PM at weekends and to keep to about an hour. **No irrigation, which is the point.** This is a rain-fed terrace system, unusual in Japan, which is why it is cut the way it is and why it nearly died out. **Twenty minutes uphill from the bus.** The bus stop is at the bottom of the approach and the walk up is signposted. Allow for it in both directions. **Free, and worked by volunteers.** The owner-farmer scheme means the paddies you are looking at are rented by people from Tokyo who come down to plant them. Stay on the paths.

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