Occupations that demand strenuous effort and planning always appear at odds with the somewhat more delicate fine arts. Well, this is one of those instances when both fields join hands. I'm referring to the rice paddy murals in Japan. It is an intricate artwork created using plants and stretching out to an impressive 2,500 sq. meters.

The murals are located in the agricultural town of Inakadate in the Aomori Prefecture, Japan. Seems like they started their rice paddy art-fest in the early 1990s. Their original murals were based on the works of a famous Japanese artist called Katsushika Hokusa. In these cases, the paddy work was usually dedicated to elaborate depictions of Mount Fuji.

Since then, it has actually grown into a tourist attraction. Using your town's main source of income to reel in surplus cash via tourism? Pure genius! At the last count, apparently 150,000 people thronged to see these weird and wonderful paddy murals.

In recent years, the paddy muralists have become quite creative and adventurous with their artwork. This year's work includes an expansive work portraying Napoleon. Another shows a traditional Japanese warrior heading off to battle.

The artwork in question are murals created by cultivating rice plants of varying colors next to each other. Thus, they used rice plants with green leaves as well as ones with yellow and purple leaves. Apparently they planned out the mural on a computer and then started placing various seeds in specific spots. How impressive is that? This must have taken a lot of organizing and planning, not to mention the subsequent manual work to ensure that the plants turned out alright.