Uchinari Tanada Rice Terraces

Uchinari Tanada are a spectacular and extensive series of more than 1,000 terraced paddies that recall an older age when rice was planted and harvested by hand. The fields, each irregularly shaped to fit the contours of the hillside, are an especially beautiful sight in early summer, when water first floods the fields, through to harvest in mid-autumn, when the rice is ripened golden under the sun. At the top of the terraces, Sekijozen-ji, a Zen temple, is the source of the water that tumbles down through each paddy throughout the growing season.