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TaKaRa Rice and Sake School is Opened
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| In April 2004, Takara Shuzo established its TaKaRa Rice and Sake School designed to teach people how precious nature and society is through growing rice and making sake. The company name, “Takara,” can be read as “ta-kara” (from rice fields). We hope that we can convey gratitude for the blessings of nature and proper drinking habits to the next generation of children through this school. |
Exchange While Interacting with Nature
TaKaRa Rice and Sake School started in Sakae-cho, Inba-gun, Chiba Prefecture where is an active rice-producing district. The school is designed to teach how rice grows through the power of nature and how rice becomes sake, through the actual experience of growing rice, the raw material for sake. With the support of the environmental NPO “Mori no Gakko,” the school is operated by the joint efforts of volunteer employees and local residents. Approximately 150 people selected from families by drawing lots participated in the Fiscal 2004 program.
Each program has “nature observation” sessions where participants observe living things around the rice paddies and learn about the ecosystem. The program also offers “playing around rice paddies” sessions where participants enjoy making grass whistles, scarecrows and paper. These activities give participants good opportunities to think not only about nature itself but also about the relationship between nature and humans, while they interact with nature enjoyably. At the end of each day, time is set aside for keeping a diary with letters and pictures, in the hope that the experiences of the day will be remembered and utilized in participants’ lives.
(1) A participant receives rice seedlings from staff. A little nervous?
(2) Participants carefully plant rice so that the spacing between seedlings is equal.
(3) During the “nature observation” session, I caught a crawfish.
(4) Adults also work on picture diaries, rediscovering their childish innocence. |
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