Giant beasts made of rice straw
By Di, November 25 2020Rice straw, or wara, is the waste left over from rice production. It used to be used to make tatami mats, bags, and other daily goods, including shoes. But these days most things are made from plastic and other synthetic materials, so farmers are left with mountains of useless wara. In 2007, farmers along with the tourism board of Niigata City in the Niigata prefecture, asked Professor Shingo Miyajima of the Department of Science and Design at the Musashino University to come up with a creative solution to the problem. He suggested using it to make art.