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Rice Terraces Full of Chuckles: The 31st Scarecrow Contest

Published September 24, 2026

The theme of the 2026 scarecrow contest is "Kusu", the Japanese sound of a stifled chuckle. A village just inscribed as a World Heritage Site chose laughter on purpose. The Scarecrow Festival will be held on 26 and 27 September.

• Village life
• Flowers & seasons

Walk through the Inabuchi rice terraces in late September and you will find a red mass standing on the path ahead.

Squat ovals are linked one after another to form a ring, and each one is painted with a white eye and a blue pupil. It looks something like a living creature, and something like an ornament.

A sign at its foot explained what it was.

"The 2025 giant scarecrow was so popular that we are extending the display of its face. Please take a photo before you go."

Last year's giant scarecrow was Myaku-Myaku, the mascot of Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai: a blue body with rings of red, cell-like shapes. Only its face has been left standing in the terraces into the following year.

The sign added this:

"You visitors probably didn't know, but we made a tail too (ha ha)."

Crafting details nobody would notice, then revealing them yourself afterwards: that one line captures the spirit of scarecrow-making in Inabuchi.

This year's theme: "Kusu"

The Inabuchi rice terraces scarecrow contest is in its 31st year.

The theme is "Kusu", a stifled chuckle. The subtitle is "Funny scarecrows full of humour and playfulness."

The poster explained why this theme was chosen.

"Precisely because Asuka Village is proud to have been inscribed as a World Heritage Site, we wanted to fill this place with laughter."

The words "World Heritage" inevitably make people stand up straighter. That very village deliberately chose "Kusu."

This year's giant scarecrow stands in a corner of the terraces, holding up a banner that reads "Congratulations on World Heritage inscription."

Just reading the titles will make you laugh

At the entrance to the terraces is a board listing this year's entries. Here are just the titles.

1 "Asuka's Unpaid Hunk"; 2 "Laughing Zaō Gongen"; 3 "Even Aliens Want to Try the Terrace Rice"; 4 "Saury Galore, Roaring Laughter"; 7 "Chanko Hotpot That'll Make You Chuckle"; 8 "Is This Gold?"; 9 "Turtle-Shaped Wooden Object" (a play on Asuka's Turtle-Shaped Stone Object); 11 "Wind God and Thunder God (Tawaraya Sōtatsu's Folding-Screen Painting)"; 13 "All Aboard!! The Babbling-Brook Pirate Ship"; 14 "I Always Wanted to Sit on Ishibutai Just Once (Asuka Daibutsu)".

Stand in front of them, and the titles come to life.

"Asuka's Unpaid Hunk" was a picture-book scarecrow in a straw hat and a red checked shirt: a figure who has kept watch over the fields for decades without pay. And they call him a hunk.

In "I Always Wanted to Sit on Ishibutai Just Once (Asuka Daibutsu)," a grey Great Buddha had left its pedestal to stand by the roadside. A rather too candid wish about one of the village's famous sights.

"Is This Gold?" is three figures at the edge of a harvested field. Two are gathered around what looks like a piece of jewellery, with speech bubbles alongside: "What about mine?" "I wonder if this is gold..." "Mine's gold!" Behind them, a figure in a straw hat holds up a pole with an air of complete indifference.

In "Chanko Hotpot That'll Make You Chuckle," a sumo wrestler is soaking in a pot of chanko, the stew sumo wrestlers eat. Over his head was held a hand-drawn "chanko umbrella."

Scarecrow Festival 2026

To coincide with the display, the "Inabuchi Rice Terraces Scarecrow Festival 2026" will be held on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 September, from 9:00 to 15:00, at the Inabuchi rice terraces.

Plans include farm-fresh vegetables, a rice terrace market, a World Heritage quiz rally, a music stage and a shouting contest.

Think about how you will get there. There is no parking around the Inabuchi rice terraces. On these two days only, shuttle buses will run directly to the venue from Kintetsu Asuka Station and from Ishibutai (check the timetable in the village's information).

The festival is organised by the NPO Asuka no Mirai wo Tsukuru Kai (Association for Creating Asuka's Future) and sponsored by the Asuka Village Regional Promotion Corporation, a general incorporated foundation.

What 31 years means

Scarecrows are, after all, tools for protecting the fields. Here they are lined up to draw people in, while local vegetables and food stalls support the work of keeping the terraces going. At the bottom of the poster was this line:

"Let's all eat together and support the rice terraces!"

Thirty-one contests also means thirty-one rice harvests on these slopes. That, probably, is the story behind the chuckles.

The scarecrows stand in working farmland. Please stay off the ridges between the fields and view them from the path.