"Just how green IS Japan, anyway?" Topic

This is a pretty bizarre question, but here goes . . .

I'm finally getting around to basing a couple of 25mm Samurai armies that I did a long, long time ago. I was just about to start in with my standard technique, khaki base/edges, Army Painter dark flock, Woodland Scenics dusting of green, Scenic effect summer grass clumps.

Standard for late summer Euro ancients battlefields. Looks great on my textured commercial mats.

Then I realized that all the pictures in my reference books show green Japanese battlefields. As in, golf course green.

I've never been to Japan. Would you guys say that Japan is greener than the average European battlefield? Is the rainfall a lot higher?

I lived there for a while. More rain, very green to my mind. I lived a little south of Tokyo, bamboo grew in the yard, sort of jungle feel to the open areas. But that's just one small part of the country, you can base it up however you want and it will be fine.

I think the movies Ran and Kagemusha would provide enough reference material but I'd say it looks pretty green overall.

David
kingsfordminiatures.org

I live in Tokyo now, but for many years I lived further north up in Tohoku, which is still very rural.

Lots and lots of green- now mostly trees and brush-covered mountains/ hills with some grassy fields, but remember that as Japan is a mountainous country, much of the available flatlands would've been cultivated for growing rice even back then.

Relatively little land area was dedicated to raising livestock, so the kind of open areas of grass fields that you find in, say, battlefields in Flanders would have been a possibility, but far less common. In the horse-raising areas of the Kanto plain, perhaps.

Depends on the season too, of course. During summer with the rice growing in the fields, you can look out over a valley and see what looks like a sea of long grass. Quite beautiful. In springtime, the fields are up to just under a foot deep in water.

After the rice is harvested in September, you are looking at brown stubble fields. All very difficult to walk over in anything like formation, by the way.

So I think the grassy green bases are okay, but from what I've seen I'd break it up with clumps of tufts rather than go for the plain "putting green" look.

Robert

(Who still needs to paint up the Kingsford samurai he bought on his last visit to Imperial Hobbies)

The first time I flew to Japan, we busted out of clouds at about 3000 ft and I was immediately struck with just how GREEN it is! And that was pretty universal. Flew into Tokyo, changed planes and went down to Kagoshima – even more green down there. Tea plantations, rice paddies, and the jungle on the mountains. Except in city cities, you'll find it pretty green. And even in cities, there are green patches, just like any other city.

Green, you can't go wrong…😜

These are the kind of questions you only get on TMP, I love it!

In honor of you guys, I am taking your advice, and switching to Spring and Summer Grass Silflor tufts, instead of Summer and Late Summer. It should green things up some.

The calligraphy on my banners may be stylized gibberish, and the nobori are the wrong colors for the wrong units. But the GRASS color is going to be perfect . . .

There was a thread a long while back about green world and brown world in terms of dominant color which was pretty interesting.
Phil

I took quite a few pics on the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto, it was *very* green. link

But it really felt like practically all the flat ground was under cultivation (barring the roads between towns), while all the hills were forested (various trees, from bamboo to conifers to deciduous)

Aichi ken is very green. Most of Japan is green. Not green like the Pacific Northwest but green.