Fourty exceptional photographs from the collections of the Musée national des arts asiatiques - Guimet tell us here the history of this cereal grown for ten thousand years, highlighting all its importance in Asian societies. Under the eye of photographers, the sumptuous landscapes of 19th and 20th century plantations, particularly in China and Japan, can be seen. Scenes from the daily lives of peasants and merchants reveal themselves as so many singular and unsuspected worlds. In counterpoint, the illustrations and poems of Gengzhitu ("Tillage and Weaving Tables"), which describe the