Terasaka Rice Terraces

The Terasaka rice terraces in Saitama Prefecture's Chichibu hills are the largest terraced fields in the prefecture, with roughly 250 plots climbing 40 meters up a hillside formed during the last glacial age. Pit dwellings and a stone-axe workshop from around 2500 BCE have been found at the southern end. By the late twentieth century, aging farmers had left the fields unused, but in 2001 local groups revived them with a cooperative ownership system involving schools, businesses, and community organizations. Both white and black rice are grown. In early October, bright red spider lilies break out along the field borders just as the harvest begins.