Rice and Japanese culture

From the December 19th, 2009 edition of The Economist, a very interesting article,You Are What You Eat, on changes in Japan related to the culture of farming and food. I blogged on food changes in Germany (under A vegetarian butcher, eh? Well it's an interesting business model for a challenging time). In the Japanese article, they mention a proverb tightly tied to the practice of rice agriculture as it relates to the cultivation of values, as so many adages and proverbs do.

A famous proverb written about rice serves as a metaphor for humility, a virtue the Japanese hold dear: "The heavier the head of rice, the deeper it bows."