Japan - Tomioka Silk Mill and Related Sites

Tomioka  Silk Mill and Related Sites (Japan) is an historic sericulture and silk mill complex  established in 1872  in the Gunma Prefecture  north west of Tokyo. Built by the Japanese Government with machinery imported from France, it consists of four sites that attest to the different stages in the production of raw silk:  production of cocoons in an experimental farm; a  cold storage facility for silkworm eggs;  reeling of cocoons and spinning of raw silk in a mill; and a school for the dissemination of sericulture knowledge. It illustrates Japan’s desire to rapidly adopt the best mass production techniques, and became a decisive element in the renewal of sericulture and the Japanese silk industry in the last quarter of the 19th century. It marked Japan’s entry into the modern, industrialized era, and propelled it to become the world’s leading exporter of raw silk, notably to France and Italy.