Sado's Rice Planting Car

Sado no Kurumada-ue: A Wheel of Rice at the Edge of Japan

At the northern tip of Sado Island, in the small coastal hamlet of Kitaujima, one household still plants a single paddy each May in a way that has nearly disappeared from the rest of the country. Three women in matching planting dress wade into a bell-shaped field, press the first seedlings into its center, then back outward in a slow spiral until the whole paddy is filled. The result looks, from the ridge above, like a wheel turning in green. This is the kurumada-ue, the "wheel rice planting," and it survives in only two places in all of Japan.

The custom belongs to the Kitamura family, who have kept it on the same plot of land for generations. It was designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property by the national government on February 3, 1979, recognized as a rare survival of an agricultural rite that was once more widespread but had dwindled almost to nothing.

An Agricultural Rite from a Distant Past

Rice planting in old Japan was never purely practical work. It carried ritual weight, a way of inviting the deity of the paddy to ensure a good harvest, and the kurumada-ue preserves that older layer with unusual completeness. The form practiced at Kitaujima is said to retain the shape of planting rites from the Nara period, more than a thousand years ago, and local tradition holds that it has been handed down in the village for roughly that long.

Similar wheel-planting customs were once recorded in Iwate, Gifu, and Kōchi prefectures. Most have vanished. Today the kurumada-ue endures in just two communities: here in Kitaujima, and in the Matsunoki district of Takayama in Gifu Prefecture. That scarcity is much of the reason the Sado example was singled out for protection. The designation criterion cited by the Agency for Cultural Affairs points to a custom that shows, in a typical and well-preserved form, the foundational character of Japanese agrarian life.

The rite drew attention beyond Japan as well. The Austrian ethnologist Alexander Slawik wrote about the kurumada in papers published in 1947 and 1954, setting it alongside "wheel reaping" customs found across parts of Europe and wondering whether both might trace back to a shared instinct to work magic for a fertile harvest.

How the Planting Unfolds

The ceremony takes place in late May, on an auspicious taian day chosen for the occasion and known locally as the ōda no hi, the day of the great field. It marks the close of the Kitamura family's planting season. Their work begins earlier at the kami-san-da, the small "god's field" beside the water inlet, and finishes here at the wheel paddy, whose flared, bell-like outline is read as a sign of good fortune that widens toward the future.

On the morning of the rite, the head of the household sets three bundles of seedlings in the tokonoma, the alcove of honor in the home, and prays for the work to go safely. He then carries the seedlings up the mountain path that follows the Kitaujima River to the field. Standing at the paddy he offers consecrated sake toward the upslope side, called the ado, and presses his palms together.

Three saotome take over from there. The word names the young women who plant rice in ritual settings, traditionally understood as servants of the rice deity and dressed for the part. Each receives one bundle. They advance from the edges toward the middle, set a half-bundle apiece so that the first plants meet at the very center, and then begin to retreat, planting as they go, circling counterclockwise and spreading outward ring by ring. As they work, planting songs are sung from the ridge, the rhythm carrying the labor along.

What the field yields is kept apart from the rest of the harvest. The rice from the wheel paddy is cut, dried, and hulled separately, a distinction that signals how differently this crop is regarded.

What to Watch For

Seen from the slope above, the planting reads as pure geometry: a green spiral opening from a single point. But the detail rewards a closer look. Notice that the women move backward rather than forward, never treading on the seedlings already set, and that the rows curve rather than run straight, which is what gives the paddy its turning-wheel shape. The songs are worth listening for too, since the planting keeps time with them.

This is not a staged performance arranged for visitors. It is a working family completing its own rice planting, on its own land, in a way it has chosen to maintain. The Kitamura household also keeps other farming observances through the year, including a pine-decoration rite on December 1 and a water-welcoming rite on the old-calendar shanichi day in February. The kurumada-ue is the most visible of these, but it sits within a fuller cycle of seasonal practice.

Around Kitaujima

Kitaujima lies along the Sotokaifu coast on Sado's northern shore, a stretch of cliffs, tunnels cut through hard marble rock, and small fishing settlements. The waters here are prized for rock fishing, and the area has long been known for arame seaweed along with wild wakame and mozuku. Near the site of the former school stand the remains of salt-making works dating to roughly the seventh and eighth centuries, a reminder of how long people have drawn a living from this coast.

Reaching the hamlet takes effort, which is part of why the custom survived here. The drive from Ryōtsu Port runs about 90 minutes along the winding coast road, and there is no visitor parking at the field itself. Local buses on the Uchikaifu line stop at Kitaujima. Anyone hoping to watch the planting should check the date and access in advance with the Sado city authorities or the preservation society, since the timing shifts with the calendar each year.

Most travelers reach Sado for its wider draws, including the gold and silver mines inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2024. The kurumada-ue offers something different and quieter: a single morning, once a year, when a thousand-year habit is carried out in a paddy at the far edge of the island.