what relation between Kome and Matsuri

what are relations between Kome (rice) and Matsuri (festival)? as I know that rice dominates customs, beliefs, rituals, and celebrations. aspect of Japanese culture that has been influenced by rice are the celebrations and traditions that have evolved from the cultivation of this crop. Traditions and celebrations provide a glimpse into the hearts and minds of the Japanese people. These celebrations exemplify what it is the people consider important, and what ideas they value enough to celebrate. Rice serves as a foundation of this aspect of the Japanese culture. rice has been valued as a
special food, associated with rituals. Rice harvest rituals, both
among the folk and at the imperial court, have been a major
cultural institution. what about all of this?

Rida,

What about all of what? You seem to know everything you need to know about rice and festivals. What else would you like to know, and what for? I hope to help you.

I'm really not trying to be mean or anything, but its just rice.

There are a lot more interesting things about Japan and Japanese culture, than just rice.

Arigatou na. thank you Uco,
now, i'm in doing my thesis. theme of my thesis is about rice identities in japanese people thought, custom, culture, and anything else. i'd almost desperate about this, cause several japanese which i ask this question, did not give me releave answers. a lot of japanese people think that rice is just rice. i just need some oppinion from japanese about kome, i've ever heard "hitotsu bun no kome ni mo man nin bani ga nokotte iruzu keirei de tabemasho"(in one grain of rice have thousand spirit, so eat it until end) if i'm not wrong.
please help me...

Rida, I really don't want to dissapoint you, but to the majority of modern Japanese people including myself, rice is just rice. You've already done your homework very well.

Well, it's a little bit more than that, but you've already listed the aspects yourself. Probably the only thing you left out is the agricultural and economical aspects.

Since Japanese farmers rely greatly on income from rice crops, the government is trying hard to protect them, often leading to arguments between nations which wish to export rice to Japan, or even between the Japanese who wish to have their taxes spent on other things. Also, once rice paddies are turned into something else, it would be extremely difficult to turn it back into rice paddies, so farmers wish to be protected.

About "hitotsu bun no kome ni mo man nin bani ga nokotte iruzu keirei de tabemasho", I can understand that this was said in history (sounds extremely WW2-ish though), but it is not at all a common phrase in Japan today, and I'm not really comfortable with the "keirei" thing. But a lot of families even today do tell their children not to leave a single grain of rice on your plate, because it is something the farmers worked very hard to grow.

Perhaps another characteristic about Japanese rice is that it is basically designed to be eaten by itself (and not for mixing with other material as they do with Spanish paella).

I'm sorry I simply copy & pasted your quote and didn't really pay attention to the details.

"hitotsu bun no kome ni mo man nin bani ga nokotte iruzu keirei de tabemasho" doesn't make sense. If you want to say "in one grain of rice have thousand spirit, so eat it until end", it would be something like "hitotsubu no kome ni mo sen nin no tamashii ga yadotteiru node, nokosazu kirei ni tabemasho" but from a quick internet check, I couldn't find any phrases like it.

thanks for the cultural info.
I grew up in Europe right after the war and the oldest relatives, who had know both WWI and WWII, that last one especially bad, with food rationning etc. had an attitude towards bread that was similar to the Japanese attitude towards rice. Not a speck of bread would be wasted. even hard stale bread went into stews, and crumbs were saved in a bag to use when deep frying food. I just about forgot too that the governement had tosubsidize the wheat/ bread production soth tthe farmers hada good income yet everyone could afford bread. Isn'it heart warming that people in different places end up doing similar things?

Sorry again. I thought the phrase was WW2-ish, because I had mis-read it (I thought it was telling you to "salute" rice).

But indeed, I always thought that there are numerous cultural similarities between Europe and Japan as opposed to say the U.S. and Japan. I think that any region in the world with a centuries of agricultural history has beliefs concerning their major crop and gods and demons.

Uco, hontou arigatou.
great comment.thank you so much. thank you.

Rice culture? culture, or merely cultivation? Rice, once a luxury for the few, is today Japan's staple food, the daily source of energy for over a hundred million people. The rice economy has become important. But because rice in Japan was long the mark of fine living, it has developed an aesthetic aura. Rice as an expression of refined eating habits? The definition would be too narrow. Rice was, then, traditionally more than a food. It also had its extensive and doubtless very old material culture.
Japanese matsuri are chiefly of sacred origin, related (at least originally) to the cultivation of rice and the spiritual well-being of local communities.
Matsuri are closely related to the growing cycle of rice: planting, sowing, harvesting, etc. cause japanese matsuri are synchronised with seasonal changes. i mean, Japanese matsuri are tied to agricultural seasons.

I suddenly figured that by "spirits" you meant "gods" not "souls".

Yes, some people today do still try to think and teach that there is a god in every grain of rice. But then, according to the Shinto beliefs, there is a god in avery aspect of life (there are even gods shaped like vegetables).

It's not that people actually believe in this as some would believe in Jesus, but it's more like a legend or fable, something to support your feelings and to remind you that you should appreciate what gets on your table or what you enjoy in life. But I don't think there is any fixed phrase or saying about it.