On Saturday 11th November Associate Professor Higginbotham, Professor Kurihara (formerly Hiroshima Kokusai Gakuin University) and 6 Eikei University of Hiroshima students went to Ini, Aki-Ota, to help with the buckwheat harvest.

Buckwheat is used to make soba noodles, and we were surprised that the plants were a pinky-red color. Before then, we had really thought about where soba comes from - now we know!

After lunch we finished harvesting the buckwheat and then went for a walk through the fields.

Our guide, farmer Kono, pointed out a wild boar mud-bath and told us about the field walls that make the distinctive Ini rice terraces.

Some of the walls of the rice fields, he explained, were made in the Muromachi period. That is over 500 years ago, and these stone walls are still in use. 

Please click here to see our past activities in the rice terraces of Ini.  

Rice Harvesting in October

Rice planting in May

過去の井仁の棚田の活動はこちらからご覧ください。

10月　稲刈り体験

５月　田植え体験