[Life with Rice]

The rice shortage that caused a stir in August and September of this year and was dubbed the “2022 rice riot” has settled down with the arrival of the new rice crop. It is a relief to know that we no longer have to worry about rice in our home, where rice is often a staple for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Rice has been an indispensable part of Japanese life since ancient times.

People have grown rice in order to harvest it, but the rice harvested in the rice paddies is not always ready to eat immediately after harvesting. The rice is harvested, dried on a drying rack, threshed (dakkoku) to remove the rice husks, hulled (momi- suri) to remove the husks, and polished (milled) to remove the bran from the brown rice. Nowadays, with the advance of mechanization, combine harvesters are used for harvesting rice, and they can not only harvest the rice but also thresh the rice, sort the unhulled rice, process the straw, and pack the unhulled rice into bags all at once. In the past, rice was dried with the ears still attached, but now rice is threshed first and dried in a dryer as unhulled rice, and hulling is also done by machine. The rice is shipped as brown rice, stored in a temperature-controlled warehouse until it is milled, and then milled and finally inspected at a rice polishing plant before being packed in bags and shipped as a product. Although we see rice every day, we rarely see it in action as these processes take place inside machines and factories. In the past, however, farmers who grew rice used to have all their children and neighbors come together to perform a series of tasks during the harvest season. This meant that schools were closed and even family members in the city would take time off from work to return home and help with the rice harvest. Rice was such an important food for the Japanese people.

The process of carefully nurturing and harvesting rice until it is ready for the dinner table also produces by-products such as rice straw, rice husks, and rice bran. These by-products are not disposed of as unnecessary. Rice husks are mainly used as “rice husk smoked charcoal,” a charcoal made from rice husks, either left as they are or carbonized by steaming and baking to improve the soil. The husks are strong enough to maintain their hard husk state, allowing air to be contained in the soil. Rice bran is used as a bed for pickling, and “bran bags” made of bran wrapped in cloth were also used as soap for washing the body in the bath or as a wax for polishing wooden floors and posts because of its moderate oil content. Rice bran has also been used for skin care since ancient times, as you can often find cosmetics containing rice bran, as its ingredients are good for the skin. Rice bran contains more nutrients than rice husks, so it is also used as a fertilizer in fields. Rice bran serves as food for microorganisms in the soil, and the activated microorganisms help build good soil.

Rice straw is the most abundant byproduct, and is now mostly chopped into small pieces by combine harvesters and spread over rice paddies. It is plowed into the rice field when the rice is raised and used as nutrients for the next crop of rice. In the past, however, it was valued as a material for making the necessities of life. It was used for everything from clothing to food and shelter. For clothing, rice straw was used to make straw sandals and straw shoes by weaving twisted rice straw into ropes. As for food-related items, rice bales are of course made of rice straw, and when soybeans are boiled and wrapped in rice straw, natto (fermented soybeans) is produced thanks to the natto bacteria attached to the rice straw. Rice straw was also used to cook rice in the kamado. Izumi, used to keep cooked rice warm after transferring it to a hitsu, is another food-related tool made of woven rice straw to preserve the flavor of rice. Ropes of rice straw were bundled together and used as a tawashi (scrubbing brush) to wash dishes and pots.

For housing, rice straw was woven into mats and cushions. In addition, infants were placed in baskets made of woven rice straw, called ejiko or ijiko, and used as baby cots during farm work. When these tools became old and unusable, they were eventually burned for fuel, and the remaining ashes were spread over the fields and returned to the soil to be used as fertilizer to grow more rice and other crops. In modern life, it may be difficult to incorporate rice straw into our food, clothing, and housing to this extent. With the spread of combine harvesters, it is also becoming more difficult to secure long rice straw. Although it is now only used in a limited number of products, objects woven from rice straw give a sense of warmth and relief. This may be because they contain the thoughts of the producers who grew the rice and the makers who carefully wove and shaped them.

Waramu's Waraizumi
https://www.shokunin.com/en/waramu/waraizumi.html
Waramu's Enza
https://www.shokunin.com/en/waramu/enza.html
Honma Kazuo Shoten's Straw Pot Stand
https://www.shokunin.com/en/honma/nabeshiki.html
Matsuyama Tokojo's Stewpot
https://www.shokunin.com/en/matsuyama/pot.html

References
https://www.kubota.co.jp/kubotatanbo/
https://www.i-nekko.jp/chie/dougu/2018-060411.html