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AsDemon Slayerfans prepare themselves for the final season of the anime, which will release as a series of movies this year, the franchise remains incredibly popular around the world.Demon Slayerand its characters have become commonplace in Japan since the anime first premiered in 2019, and the franchise has been the subject of countless collaborations, pop-up shops,limited-time amusement park rides, and more over the years. Now, a hugely ambitious art project celebrating the main character, Tanjiro, has been announced using a unique medium.
The city of Gyoda in Japan announced earlier this month that they are going to create aportrait ofDemon Slayer’s Tanjiro Kamadoout of a rice paddy. This will not be the first piece of rice paddy art that the city has created, but that doesn’t make the project any less ambitious. Gyoda City has shared the plans for how the finished rice paddy is meant to look, and are actively recruiting volunteers who want to be a part of this very special piece of anime artwork.
The Largest Portrait of Tanjiro Ever Made
One Japanese Town’s Ambitious Anime Art Project
Gyoda City announced via its official website that it isplanning to turn a huge rice paddyinto a portrait Tanjiro, the main character ofDemon Slayer. Gyoda is a moderately sized city of about 80,000 inhabitants just north of Tokyo in the prefecture of Saitama. Gyoda is supported in part by agriculture, not the least of which is rice. That means the city and its surrounding area have plenty of rice paddies, which is why it has been chosen as the medium for this art project.
Gyoda City has actually been making rice paddy artwork for years, and has even been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records for their achievements. According to the city’s website, they have chosen the design of Tanjiro Kamado this year tocelebrate the release ofDemon Slayer: The Movie - Infinity Castle, which is set to release on July 18th, 2025 in Japan. The website also has a simple explanation of whatDemon Slayeris, for anyone who may be wondering where this year’s design came from (and somehow has not noticedDemon Slayereverywhere in Japan for the past 6 years).
Gyoda City’swebsitedescribes the project as follows (translated from Japanese):
Gyoda City’s rice paddy art has been attracting attention every year, including Guinness World Record™ recognition and collaborations with various content. This year’s design depicts the main character, Tanjiro Kamado, in celebration of the theatrical release on July 18th (Friday) ofDemon Slayer: The Movie - Infinity Castle, a work that is widely popular across generations. Please look forward to a powerful work of art depicted in the world’s largest rice paddy.
The most exciting part of the project, though, is that Gyoda City is looking for volunteers to help plant the ricethat will become Tanjiro. The first planting session will take place on Saturday, June 14th 2025, with registration opening at 8:30am. Anyone junior high school age and up is welcome to come, and there is no participation fee. They are looking for 300 people to volunteer for the start of the project. The following day there will also be a “rice planting experience” hosted in the same area with a 1000 yen participation fee, which is open to people of all ages to learn how to plant rice and add any finishing touches.
Why Tanjiro Made from Rice is Perfect Irony
Eat and Be Eaten - It’s Only Karma
There are a few fun reasons why a rice paddy is actually a perfect way to represent Tanjiro. Firstly,Demon Slayermay be a fantasy anime, but it is also rich with Japanese history.Demon Slayerisset in the Taisho Era, and Japanese history has a major influence on the environment, all the way down to the character’s clothing, what they eat, how buildings look, and more. Rice has always been a significant part of Japanese food culture, including historically, so creating Tanjiro from rice ties the anime to a piece of Japan that has been important for centuries.
Secondly, Tanjiro eats a lot inDemon Slayer. He can often be seen eating rice ballsabove and beyond what a normal human, or even other characters, are able to eat. It is a fun part of Tanjiro’s character, and often his meal-time habits are used to break up heavy, darker parts of the show by giving viewers something to smile about and giggle over. It is hard not to be amused by the irony that Tanjiro, the character known for eating his own weight in rice, is going to become rice and be eaten himself.
One of the benefits of volunteering to help plant the Tanjiro rice paddy is that all volunteers will be gifted some of the rice after it is harvested. They can also receive an optional participation certificate. But the real gift is being able to eat their hard work this winter, when Tanjiro is eventually turned from artwork into a staple food. The Tanjiro rice paddy is scheduled to be harvested around December, giving volunteers something to look forward to this winter when the anime is finally complete, and so is all their hard work in the fields.
