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Rice

2011

Japan with its exciting, mystical, far eastern culture was deeply shocked by the earthquake, the tsunami and the nuclear accident in March 2011. With this project I would like to express my sympathy and respect for the people in Japan.

Water, Salt and RICE,

sacrified to the gods, deeply rooted in Japanese culture and with such great influence it so greatly, that it is said

where no RICE thrives, thrive no Japanese.

Therefore this work is dedicated to RICE, one of the most important staples in over half of mankind’s diet.

RICE needs the shelter of the valleys and the humid warmth of the South, being unable to survive in the harshness of high altitudes or the cool North. The limited cultivation area has made it as valuable as silver. Each RICE cutting is cared for separately, each inch of ground cultivated with utmost care. The farmers bind harvested RICE into artistically bound sheaves, laying them out in patterns to dry…

From the water filled terraces in the South to the snow covered fields in the North, SOIL has been collected from the RICE fields of the four Japanese main islands Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. Also from fields soiled by the salt of the tsunami and which farmers now struggle to recultivate. 

The project will be completed with a SOIL sample from the top of the sacred Ontake-san, where the sky meets the EARTH, and two other samples from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which mark a turning point in the history of Japan and the world.

The produced TERRAGRAPHICS will visualize one part of the diversity of Japan’s culture. They are also an attempt to come to terms with a tragedy. The Japanese have shown the world, how to master natural and social challanges with grace.

Rice

Japan

An insight into the project RICE highlighting some of the most beautiful pictures...


The Papers

Thank

This project was made possible with the help of many interested parties. I would like to express my sincere thanks to

Shokichi Abe
Aki Adachi
Tetsuo Ashihara
Keiko & Isao Beppu
Ina Bretschneider-Baker
Bernard Diekhaus
Till Fangohr
Kieko Fukuyama
Koichi & Yoshohiro Furuuchi
Bernd Gericke
Gabriele Greve
Sumiko Harada
Akira Hayashi
Brigitte Heintze
Masashi & Satomi Higashide
Kazuhiro Hirakawa
Fuyuki Ichinoseki
Akemi Ishikura
Hideo Kamimura
Yuko Kawakami
Shoko Kawasama
Kazumi Makita
Tan Minoguchi
Hiromi Miyao
Chie Morikane
Michiyo & Fumio Muto
Toyomi & Yasu Nagao
Iwami Nakagawa
Hatsue & Shigeaki Nakamura
Taeko Nasu
Hideo Ogawa
Sachiko Saito-Treu
Shojun Sano
Eiki Sasaki
Frau Schirakanta
Jutta Schreier
Hisa Shibata
Shunroku Shimada
Keiji Shirato
Machiko & Isao Taguchi
Tojiro Takahashi
Dorothee Takatsu
Takamichi Takatsu
Masanori Takizawa
Takegoro Tako
Hiroyuki Tatsumi
Cousteau Tazuke
Kazuko & Takash Tazuke
Peter Treu
Ryouhichi Ueno
Beatrix Wilhelm
Fujio Yamakage
Asato Yamanoto
Kazunari Yamashita
Masako Yanagi
Tomohiro Yoshida