Maruyama Senmaida (rice terraces)
“Maruyama Senmaida” (丸山千枚田) is one of the biggest and the most beautiful rice terraces in Japan with 1,340 paddies stretching on the steep slope of mount Shirakura.
There once were 2,240 paddies deep in the forest with a lot of sunshine in the 1,600s. We now only can imagine how tough and skilled work it was to develop the wooded slope by “building” rice terraces with stone walls.
1,340 paddies are now preserved with great effort of the government, the people who are devoted to Maruyama Senmaida, and the ownership program. Every farm work is done by hands because paddies are too small to use modern machines.
It now is taking its role as a four-seasons spectacular tourist site and passing the precious culture down.
