ASUKA, Nara Pref. -- The mid-June drizzle had just let up when taiko drum beats marked the opening of the taue (rice-planting) festival.
The festival kicks off a series of events scheduled to take place throughout the latter half of the year in an effort to draw visitors to the village of Asuka. Organized by a cooperative set up to promote local tourism, the rice-planting festival will be followed by akamai hana matsuri, a rice-flower festival in September, and in October, akamai shukaku matsuri, a rice-harvesting festival.
"We hope these events will draw more tourists to Asuka and revitalize the area," said Masanori Ishida, director of the 15-member cooperative union, formed in December 2001 by the members of the Asuka Chamber of Commerce and Industry. "People say that Asuka has an atmosphere of ancient romance, so we thought that planting akamai [an ancient strain of reddish-brown rice] would suit the area," he added.