The Tomioka Silk Mill and Related Industrial Heritage
World Heritage Registration Promotion Office
Location map of components of the Tomioka Silk Mill and Related Industrial Heritage
- The Tomioka Silk Mill
- The Great Mulberry of Usune
- Arafune Fuketsu
- Tochikubo Fuketsu
- The Birthplace of Takayama-sha
- The Tomizawa house
- Group of silk-raising farmhouses in the Akaiwa District
- Old-Kanrasha Obata-kumi warehouse
- Old Usui Pass Railroad Infrastructure
- Old Kouzuke Railway Related Facility
NOTE: Some silk industrial heritage sites include private houses or private companies’ offices or factories. Therefore, you may not be able to visit or take photos in such a case.
Description of the “ Tomioka Silk Mill and Related Industrial Heritage”
The Tomioka Silk Mill was built to improve the quality of raw silk, which was one of the nation’s major exports. The Mill had many unique features that clearly reflect the originality of Japanese Industrial Revolution. First, it was a government-run factories built under the Japanese government policy to encourage new industry. Secondly, French machine-reeling technology was actively introduced at this model Mill, and then widely disseminated across the nation. Moreover, the mill produced high-quality products aiming for the promotion of export. The Tomioka Silk Mill is considered as a remarkable example to show how the Western concept of the Industrial Revolution (modernization) spread to the Far East in the form of “factories,” and was incorporated in a full-fledged and rapid manner.
Instructors at the Tomioka Silk Mill
Female factory workers working in the Tomioka Silk Mill : The workers took the leadership roles when they came back to local silk mills all over Japan.Enlarged image : The Empress composed a tanka of the Tomioka Silk Mill to metaphorically acclaim the national prosperity.
The large-scale factory was built using a truss structure.Upper image : Colored woodblock print
Lower image : Present photo
The mass production of raw silk brought about by the development of machine-reeling at the Tomioka Silk Mill and the promotion of silk export increased demands for cocoons, the raw material for silk. In expectation to increase the production of cocoon, some farmers in Gunma Prefecture renovated their houses for silk-raising. Groups of those houses, such as farmhouses in Akaiwa District, formed unique rural landscape with mulberry fields. Moreover, fueled by large quantities of cocoons, several other facilities such as; the houses of reproduction of silkworm eggs to supply eggs to silk-raising farmers; cold storage facilities to preserve silkworm eggs (Arafune Fuketsu and Tochikubo Fuketsu); sericulture training facilities (the Takayama-sha); union organization of local farmers using traditional manual silk-reeling method called “Zaguri” (Old Kanra-sha Obata-gumi); and silk textile manufacture were highly developed. Railroad and warehouse facilities related to the transport of cocoons and raw silk (Usui Pass Railroad and Old Kozuke Railway) were also developed in this area. All of which formed a unique cultural landscape related to silk industry as a whole. In addition, such a development of silk industry was based on the traditional sericulture and filature (the Tomizawa house, the Great Mulberry of Usune) which were already flourishing in the Edo period, and blossomed with modernization,
Consequently, Gunma Prefecture became one of the leading productive centers of cocoons and raw silk in Japan, and its advanced technology spread throughout the nation. As a result, Japan became the world’s largest exporter of raw silk in 1909, and foreign currency earned through the export of raw silk fueled the advancement of the Japanese Industrial Revolution and its shift from light industry to heavy industry. With the development of modern silk industry in the United States and other countries, the inexpensive and high-quality raw silk exported from Japan greatly contributed to the popularization of silk.
Brochures of the Lonaconing Silk Mill in the US and its exterior appearance (The photo of the mill was provided by Ms. Sasaki)
Major machine-reeling mills established on the model of the Tomioka Silk Mill
- Hokkaido Development Office Silk Mill (Hokkaido)
- Kotsu-sha Silk Mill (Miyagi Pref.)
- Seki Silk Mill / Matsushiro Silk Reeling Company / Ito Silk Reeling Company / Takahashi Silk Reeling Company / Nakayama-sha / Shugyo-sha / Toko-sha (Nagano Pref.)
- Kanazawa Silk Reeling Company (Ishikawa Pref.) / Katsuyama Silk Reeling Company (Fukui Pref.)
- Muroyama Silk Reeling Company (Mie Pref.)
- Prefectural Model Silk Mill (Hyogo Pref.)
- Kumamoto Silk Reeling Company (Kumamoto Pref.)