Search Results for: scarecrow

These two scarecrows were stood silently protecting a couple of rice fields in west Tokyo. One of them, even when suddenly appearing out of the darkness, seemed more serene than scary.

His colleague, on the other hand, was suitably sinister.

Stare, if you dare, into the empty eyes of a Japanese scarecrow.

Or contentment perhaps due to the impending harvest and the sense of a job very competently done.

Earlier in the summer, a machine wielding mannequin head scarecrow made a solitary appearance. But now, with Tokyo grown rice almost ready to harvest, the main crew have moved in. A somewhat disheveled rabble it has to be said, but their realistic features and vacant stares are as striking as they are unsettling.

Much is often made of Japan’s advances in robot technology. Plus of course the work such automatons may eventually do. But way out in west Tokyo, far more basic non-humans are already hard at work.

Due to their chosen line of work, it’s apt that Japanese scarecrows are somewhat on the sinister side.

Sometimes even going as far as disturbing.

But times change it would seem, even if their job title doesn’t. And with cycling clearly now a thing.

There are hints at what could be described as serenity. Possibly even joy.