HOME > Exhibit Guide > Countryside of Kyoto Zone
Take one step inside this zone, and you will enter an idyllic, pastoral landscape of rice terraces and irrigation canals. There you will encounter the catfish, crucian carp, frogs and other aquatic life that call this place home. Visitors can enjoy a tranquil atmosphere that belies this zone’s central Kyoto location. The zone recaptures Japan’s virgin landscape in the good old days, when people co-existed in harmony with all manner of life through the cultivation of rice fields.
A spacious outdoor area blending seamlessly with the surrounding park
On entering this zone, visitors will see the scenic Umekoji Park spread out before their eyes. Visitors strolling by the rice terraces are filled with a sense of openness and liberation, because the rice terraces are skillfully landscaped to incorporate Shakkei, or “borrowed scenery,” from the surrounding park’s greenery. Small birds and insects sometimes stop by the area. The zone’s tranquility and serenity might make visitors forget that they are actually in central Kyoto.
An abundance of creativity to help aquatic life enter the rice fields
Rice farming by people attracts aquatic life to rice fields. Visitors can witness first-hand the seasonal changes in this aquatic life. The rice fields fill with water as the amount of water flowing in irrigation canals increases. Fish enter the rice fields through the irrigation canals and lay eggs. Take a moment to appreciate such interconnections between people and aquatic life.
