How to Hazagake

Hazagake (or hazakake, or hasakake), a way to dry rice under the sun, has become our company's yearly event in autumn. "Haza" (or hasa) means the equipment with which the reaped rice is hung over and "gake" (or kake) derives from the verb "kakeru," or "hung" in English.

Hazagake had been popular until 1970. The scenery of hazagake, known as pastoral autumn landscape, could be seen all over Japan. After 1970, however, hazagake was replaced by the more efficient way of rice production; harvesting with a "combine" and drying with a machine.

To produce hazagake rice, the rice should be reaped with stems and bundled. We use the "binder," a special machine for reaping and bundling. A combine is not usable because it functions only to reap and threshed the rice simultaneously.

A Binder is useful but needs tips for operation.

The silver poles are contemporary Hazas

From our experience, the biggest problem with hazagake is machine troubles. The special machine "binder" often doesn't work. Engine troubles, sudden freeze in mud, or malfunction of binding mechanism is not rare. Smetimes 3 or 4 hours are spent to tackle with such troubles, when completing one rice paddy of hazagake normally takes a day with 5 people (for us). If the rice falls down because of rain and wind, it should be raised for the machine to work efficiently.

Sometimes binders are not useful because of troubles

When a binder doesn't work, we produce hazagake by hand. The rice is reaped with sickles and bundled one by one. This is the traditional style of race harvesting. While the binder operation needs sufficient skill and hands, hazagake by hand takes much more time and human power.

Make bundles using straws.

After about 7 to 10 days, hazagaked rice is threshed with a combine harvester. The whole process of hazagake therefore takes 8 to 11 days. This process is reduced to only a day if combine harvester is used from the beginning.