A 410.3-kilogram pumpkin grown with music and brought by farmer Hiroyoshi Utsunomiya from Ehime Prefecture, western Japan, won a contest Sunday as Japan's biggest pumpkin.
It was the second victory for Utsunomiya, 68, who said he had grown the pumpkin with music of Mozart playing in the background.
Referring also to his first win in 2018 with a 412.6 kg pumpkin he said he had grown with traditional "enka" Japanese ballad titles, he said, "It shows that what I've been doing is not wrong."
Among 51 participants from nine prefectures, a 385.0-kg pumpkin grown by Akira Nishikawa from Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo, took second place and one weighing 334.0 kg grown by Toshiaki Shiraki from Mie Prefecture, central Japan, came third.
The COVID-19 pandemic had forced the 34th event, held on Shodo Island in the Seto Inland Sea, to allow participants not to physically bring pumpkins but submit records, which Nishikawa and Shiraki did.
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