Nawashiro : Rice nursery

Select seeds At the beginning of April, put the unhulled rice (seeds) reaped last year into salt water to eliminate those which float to the surface (these are bad).

Soaking seeds

For about 10 days before sowing. soak the seeds in water. Some people put the seeds in the hot bath in order to further promote budding.

Seeding

Prepare the seedling beds by filling soil in planters beforehand. Sowing is usually automated; put the planters on the conveyer belt of the sowing machine, which discharges the planters with seeds sowed.

Place the planters in lines in large hothouses or long tunnel-like hothouses and thus under the most suitable conditions for seeds, wait for them to bud and grow.

Plow a rice paddy

Taokoshi

Turn up the paddy with tractors, etc. in order to loosen the soil which has become packed during the winter. In old days, people used to do this hard work by themselves with hoes.

Azenuri

In order to prevent water from leaking out from the paddy, apply mud and clay thoroughly over the ridge between rice fields. Today, some people put plastic sheets over it.

Shirokaki

Fin the paddy field with water and till the soil with cultivators until the soil becomes soft enough to plant the rice.

Narashi

After the paddy field is tilled, level and smooth the field with a tool like the leveler used on baseball grounds.