You may think crop circles are cool, but they nothing compared to the rice field murals found in villages like Inakadate, Japan.

Using purple and yellow-leafed rice, combined with the more traditional green variety, the villagers of Inakadate create true agricultural masterpieces. This all began in 1993, when people thought of doing something spectacular, to revitalize the area.

During the first nine years, people only created a rice representation of Mount Iwaki, but then started plating intricate models. Landowners in the area agreed to use their parcels to create a 15,000 square meters “canvas” and, using a computer to pinpoint where every rice seed would be planted, managed to create some extraordinary works of art.

This year, in the village of Inakadate, people could see Napoleon and a Sengoku warrior, both on horseback, coming to life in the rice fields. The artworks are invisible from ground level, so the curious have to climb the village’s mock castle tower to admire them.

More than 150,000 people visit Inakadate every year, to see its amazing rice field art. That’s an impressive number of people considering the village has a population of just 8,700.

via Daily Mail