During a rice planting festival in Japan, the women of Chiyoda stoop and plant in unison while drummers and bamboo-clacking musicians set the tempo for the accompanying pipers. As the dance master leads the troupe, he calls out, "What flower blooms in the front field? Rice flowers, money flowers, flowers of perfect virtue."

(Text adapted from and photograph shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Day of the Rice God," January 1982, National Geographic magazine)