Landscapes and Rituals of Wet Rice Culture in East Asian Villages

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The aim of this research was to demonstrate the historical and cultural relationships between wet-rice culture and societies in East Asia. In particular, it was intended to elucidate the cultural position of Japan in East Asia, with its focus on religious rites and village landscapes, through identifying specific fields of study. Japan is known as the easternmost edge of Indian culture. In order to clarify the cultural position of Japan, China and Japan are set as an east-west axis, with its focus on the study of the diffusion of wet-rice culture and Buddhism. Japan and Bali(Indonesia) were set as a north-south axis. Todai-ji temple in Japan, where research on the relationship between Buddhist culture and rice agriculture had already been carried out, was selected as the chief site. The study was conducted in the temple compound, and subsequently a symposium entitled Rice Field Development and the Wet-Rice Culture of Ancient and Medieval Buddhist Temples was organized on November 27, 2 … More 004. Another symposium, The Origin and Diffusion of Japonica Rice , organized on October 29, 2005, considered the Japanese cultural position, centering on the southern route which rice production took, and situations from the ancient period to the modern one were explained in part. In the east-west axis, the research paid main attention to state-led Buddhism and water irrigation, to which the research in Cambodia centering on Angkor Wat made a major contribution. In the north-south axis, the research in Bali was deepened, while the study of Yugeshima Island, in Ehime Prefecture, also advanced. In Bali, a report on Subak Basang Alas, in the east of the island, was produced. Subak is known as a village water-irrigation cooperative, and its report was written by the cooperative. This report was then translated into Japanese -a first. It was included, among other papers, in Lecture Series II-the Study of Wet-Rice Culture : Balinese Wet-Rice Culture and Rituals-Centering on Basang Alas Village of Karangasem Regency.In sum, it can be said that the foundations of the societies of wet-rice agriculture in East Asia have been clarified. Less