The postwar era in Japan began with most of the populace battling starvation.
But 60 years on, the situation is totally different. Thanks to technological progress and improvements in agriculture, Japan now produces a surplus of its staple grain rice.
As the situation surrounding farming households gradually changed, rice growers in various parts of Akita Prefecture began describing developments in the form of duets called "kakeuta," which are impromptu verses sung as conversation, without musical accompaniment, and using the Japanese verse form of 26 syllables in four unrhymed lines.