Rice Paddy Art in Saitama Celebrates Japanese Rugby Players

Rice paddy fields in Gyoda, in Japan's Saitama prefecture, were transformed into works of art featuring three members of the Japanese national rugby team ahead of the Rugby World Cup. The art piece was created in June by over a thousand local volunteers planting rice in the seven-acre (2.8-hectare) area, according to a report from hhttps://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0005875790?fp=996aa6b0b1f85c61d8d5f81f9cb5b388 The Japan News . This footage was captured by British sports journalist Nick Heath on October 7, during the Rugby World Cup group stages. Gyoda is about five miles from Kumagaya, a host city for the 2019 Rugby World Cup. This is Gyoda's 12th annual rice paddy art event, which has previously paid tribute to https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Stand-alone-photo-Japan-rice-paddy-art-13176826.php the Nazca Lines of Peru and https://en.japantravel.com/saitama/gyoda-s-kodaihasu-no-sato/6571 traditional Japanese motifs. Gyoda also holds https://livejapan.com/en/in-tokyo/in-pref-tokyo/in-tokyo_suburbs/article-a0002624/ the Guinness World Record for https://kumagaya.keizai.biz/headline/379/ the world's largest rice field art . The design shows, from left, https://www.japanrugbyclub.com/kazuki-himeno.html Kazuki Himeno , https://www.japanrugbyclub.com/michael-leitch.html Michael Leitch , and https://www.japanrugbyclub.com/fumiaki-tanaka.html Fumiaki Tanaka . (Footage By Nick Heath/Storyful via Getty Images)