8 August 2026 — I wonder if there were many rice-themed events on this day.
Risshū, the first day of autumn by the old calendar.
Can you feel any hint of autumn?
Where we live is countryside, so we feel the turning of the seasons on our skin.
It's a sense I never had at all when I lived in Tokyo.
I daydream that spending a few months a year in the countryside of another country might be a lovely chapter of life.
The Master said: it is virtue that makes a neighbourhood beautiful. If you choose to dwell where there is no virtue, how can you be called wise?
That's a passage I learned the other day. Not only with the Analects, but with words cut out like this, the way people take them differs from person to person, and even for the same person it changes with when they read it.
Since old times there have been two common readings — one about where you live, one about where your heart rests — and I think both are important viewpoints.
Since the end of the rainy season the river has run dry, and the rice field has been parched the whole time.
Water isn't holding the weeds down, so I can't keep up with how fast they grow.
Wanting to do something about it, I found a Makita split-shaft ground trimmer. Blade width 330 mm. Our field is planted one seedling per 450 mm square, so maybe this would work! I gave it a try.
But rice tillers and thickens, so the gaps between plants narrow, and the blade catches the rice — useless.
In that case, from next year I'm thinking of planting with even wider spacing between plants and rows.
No water, rising temperatures, the super El Niño — these will continue next year and beyond. I don't think it will be solved this year. If anything, climate change may accelerate exponentially.
In which case, it struck me, maybe I should start studying upland rice now.
A shift from "somehow secure water" to "raise my skill with upland rice, which grows without it".
No pesticides, no herbicides, no fertiliser — and yet less time spent on field work.
The dream of a paddy where giant water bugs return has ended, since a flooded field is no longer possible,
but the exploration of upland rice begins.
Oh, that's right. Yu is exhibiting again at the jewellery shop CASUCA in Meguro, Tokyo.
The theme is cats.
Cat lovers, please go and see.
Until 30 August
CASUCA HISTORIA
3-12-11 Meguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-0063
Nearest station
15 minutes on foot from the west exit of Meguro Station
Tokyu Bus: Otori-jinja-mae / Moto-keibajo-mae, 5 minutes on foot
Details on CASUCA's page
https://casuca.jp/cat_and_casuca/
Have a good day today, too.
Hideo
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