Registration Date：2001.01.29
comment
Terraced rice paddies in Shirome-cho, Wajima City. The spectacular view of small rice paddies overlapping each other facing the Sea of Japan and extending to the coast is a representative sightseeing spot of "satoyama and satoumi of Noto," which is designated as one of the 100 best terraced rice paddies in Japan and registered as a World Agricultural Heritage site. The area per paddy field is as narrow as about 18㎡, and a typical terraced rice field landscape of 1004 pieces is developed in an area of about 4㏊. Water is drawn into the terraced rice paddies at the end of April each year, and rice planting begins at the beginning of May. The contrast between the fresh green of the rice plants and the blue of the Sea of Japan in summer and the sunset on the terraced rice fields are spectacular.
open
Description
In this area, where there is little flat land, people have been cultivating the slopes for farming since ancient times. Shiroyone Senmaida is collection of terraced rice paddies that spread out on a steep slope facing the Sea of Japan coast from Mt. Koshu (elevation 567m), about 8km east of Wajima City. The area is prone to landslides due to its slope, and most of the rice paddies were lost in a large landslide in 1684. However, by the mid-19th century, the rice paddies had gradually recovered due to the efforts of farmers. Even today, most of the rice paddies are still planted by hand, and some rice is grown in "seedbed" where seedlings are grown directly in the paddies. In Senmaida, where rice is cultivated on a slope, the following anecdote remains. Long ago, a farmer and his wife finished planting rice and counted the number of rice paddies to make sure of the number of paddies.Though there should have been 1,000, they were missing two. As the sun was setting, the farmer decided to give up and go home. He picked up a straw raincoat that was nearby, and found the two missing rice paddies hidden underneath it. From this, a haiku that can be translated as “Under the straw raincoat remain two paddies yet to be plowed” is derived. The scenery of Senmaida is the result of the wisdom and efforts of our ancestors in the Oku-Noto region, and the crystallization of these efforts has created a beautiful landscape adorning the coastline with the Sea of Japan in the background. In June 2011, Noto's Satoyama and Satoumi, located on the Noto Peninsula of Ishikawa Prefecture, was recognized as Japan's first site of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage systems, and is known as a symbol of the efforts of local residents in Japan to hand down farmland through events such as the “Senmaida Light Up”.
Cultural property information
【Opening hours】
Roadside Station: Senmaida Pocket Park Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Open until 8:00 p.m. during the LED illumination event Azenokiraki (mid-October to mid-March the following year)
【Closing day】
ー
【Fee】
ー
【External link】
Back to cultural properties in Wajima City, Ishikawa Prefecture
