stack of rice straw; rice-straw rick
Refers to a traditional conical or cylindrical stack of harvested rice straw, commonly seen in rural Japan after the rice harvest.
In the autumn rice fields, several stacks of rice straw stood.
昔は稲むらを屋根ふきに使った。
In the past, rice-straw stacks were used for thatching roofs.
Full kanji spelling using the uncommon character 叢; rarely used in modern writing.
Compound of 稲 (いね, 'rice plant') and むら, an old word meaning 'heap' or 'cluster', related to 群れ (むれ, 'group'). The kanji 叢 is an ateji for むら.