Delicious Rice Dried the Old-Fashioned Way on Racks in the Sun: Noto, Ishikawa Prefecture

During the harvest season in the mountain villages of the Noto Peninsula, sheaves of rice are hung out to dry in the sun on wooden racks called “haza.“ (Other appellations include “inagi,“ “inekake,“ and “inabata.“) Previously these racks of rice drying in the sun were a common sight in farming areas across Japan, but now harvested rice is generally threshed and dried by machine. Hanging the ears of rice on racks in the sun is a more gradual way of drying the grains, resulting in less cracking and loss of f