Tomioka Silk Mill

The Tomioka silk mill dates back to the early Meiji period. With its related sites consisting of silkworm farms, a school and a cold storage facility (for silkworm eggs), it illustrates Japan’s desire, a traditional producer of silk in the Far East, to rapidly adopt the best mass production techniques. The government imported machinery and industrial expertise from France in order to create an integrated raw silk production system in Gunma Prefecture. It included the production of eggs and their storage, silk worm farming in sericulture schools and the construction of a large mill for reeling and mechanised spinning. In turn, the Tomioka model complex and its related sites were a decisive element in the renewal of sericulture and the Japanese silk industry in the last quarter of the 19th century, and a key element of the country’s entry into the modern industrialised world.

Tajima Yahei sericulture farm

Takayama-sha sericulture school

Arafune cold storage site