Every year, during the last days of August, the Wara Art Matsui festival offers its share of gigantic sculptures made of rice straw. The festival was born from a collaboration between the students of Niigata University and those of Musashino Art University in Tokyo who wanted to exploit the material of rice straw with an innovative angle.
It was in 2006 that the first straw sculpture was created and exhibited, and in 2008, the city of Niigata decided to make it an annual event. Entitled the “Wara Art Matsuri Festival”, this fair celebrating the rice harvest is a really unique event (“wara” meaning rice straw in Japanese). Student Amy Goda was the one who imagined these giant sculptures, including dinosaurs, made from rice straw.
This year, visitors were able to admire new giant creations such as a mammoth, a monkey or a snow tiger.
