Soma Tambo Art Project
After the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami, everyone needed our support. And they still do today. In 2014, after three years of not growing rice, a rice field (tambo) art project was started to celebrate a return to normal. With a lot of hard work and help from people around Japan and the world, our tambo art project continues. This project connects us all together through planning, planting, harvesting, and enjoying the fruits of our labors.
Come join us! We are waiting for you…
Welcome to the Soma Tambo Art Project!
In this area, like many other places in Fukushima, the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent tsunami damaged and destroyed much of our regular way of life. Many of our irrigation canals were destroyed, and rice paddies (tambo) and agricultural fields were soaked with salt water, causing them to become unusable. In 2014, when we able to start farming again, we decided to create a tambo art project as a symbol of celebration and reconstruction.
To create our tambo art, we grew rice seedlings from seeds and planted them by hand with the help of many wonderful people.
In addition, the Soma Tambo Art Project is collaborating with many other groups, including the NPO Youkei Design Organization, Soma’s Fun Friends, and the Sammu Tambo Art Project.
The tambo for our art project has been generously provided by Tomoyuki Endo, a local nori (seaweed) fisherman. The area around his field, Matsukawaura, is an area where the seaweed aquaculture industry is recovering but has yet to regain its full strength.
Soma and the Iwanoko District still face many challenges to achieve real restoration.
As a symbol of this struggle, we created an image of horses based on local history and culture using rice of different colors. People gathered from the local area and from all over the country under the early summer sunshine to work together, planting the seedlings in support of Fukushima prefecture reconstruction.
Please come and join us for our next event!
Upcoming Events
Past Events
Fall Harvest Festival 2019 – Eating the Tambo Art
October 26th, 2019
Event details will be posted here,
later this year.
Spring Planting Event 2019 – Let’s Plant Rice Together
May 25th, 2019
This events has finished successfully.
Thank you!
Fall Harvest Festival 2018 – Eating the Tambo Art
This event has finished successfully
on October 27, 2018!
See you next year!
Summer Light Festival 2018
This events has finished successfully on
October 4, 2017.
Thank you for coming!
Spring Planting Event 2018 – Let’s Plant Rice Together
May 19th, 2018
This events has finished successfully.
Thank you!
Fall Harvest Festival 2017 – Eating the Tambo Art
This events has finished successfully on
October 28, 2017.
Thank you for coming!
The Project is Crowdfunded!
“Want to see more people to visit this beautiful part of Japan, Soma.”
We hosted a crowdfunding project in early 2017 to promote the event and the area. As a result, we were able to have 191 people funding the project. Thank you! The link below is the special page for the fund.
相馬田んぼアートプロジェクト | FAAVO磐城国
Sponsors
Supporters
