Tomioka Silk Mill Tour

• Arriving in Tomioka City
• Guided Tour of the Tomioka Silk Mill
• History of the Tomioka Silk Mill
• Paul Brunat
• The Red Wine Story
• The Tomioka Silk Mill as Model Factory
• Tomioka Silk Mill Buildings
• Tomioka Silk Mill Access
• Guided Tours

Tomioka Silk Mill Tour, Tomioka City, Gunma Prefecture 富岡製糸場, 富岡市, 群馬県

Johannes Schonherr

The Tomioka Silk Mill in Tomioka City, Gunma Prefecture, was the first modern industrial complex in Japan, opening in 1872. The original silk mill buildings from the earliest days of operation are still intact today and form an impressive architectural and historical site. In 2014, the Tomioka Silk Mill was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, becoming the first industrial site in Japan to receive that honor.

Visiting the Tomioka Silk Mill means witnessing the beginning of modern Japan - the Japan of the early Meiji Period (1868-1912) when the country not only opened up to the outside world after 300 years of self-imposed isolation during the Edo Period (1603-1868) but when it seriously started to try getting on a par with the major Western powers.

Entrance of the Tomioka Silk Mill with East Cocoon Warehouse in the background, Gunma Prefecture

Meiji era warehouse close to Joshu Tomioka Station, Tomioka, Gunma Prefecture

Arriving in Tomioka City

The Silk Mill, located in central Tomioka city, has shaped the whole city. For over a century, it was the main industrial site of the town, more or less almost everybody in Tomioka was in some way related to the silk mill. This is still the case today - it's the silk mill that brings in the visitors and with them, a good part of the business Tomioka depends on.

The shiny new Joshu Tomioka train station starkly reflects the dependence of the city on the silk mill. The train station was rebuilt and newly opened in 2014, at the time when the silk mill received its UNESCO World Heritage status.

Thus, the train station walls sport European brick-style patterns, in exactly the same way the real brick walls at the silk mill are arranged.

Walk out of the station and the first building complex you encounter is a Meiji Period silk warehouse and a silk cocoon drying facility dating from the Taisho era (1912-1926). The latter has been transformed into the Okatte grocery market. Inside the market, which is actually a large greengrocer shop, you can still see the original layout of the cocoon drying facility with its many supporting wooden beams.

Walking through the old town of Tomioka means walking through a silk-mill shaped historical district. A free map you can pick up at the train station, gives the details. The still existing Haruta kimono shop, for example, sold kimono to the girls working at the mill. Unfortunately, the movie theater opened to entertain the silk mill workers is gone today.

The current tourist shops lining the streets are invariably targeted at silk mill visitors. They sell a wide variety of silk products including silk scarves and other silk fabric products, silk soap and even a funny looking silkworm-shaped chocolate.

The free map also marks a number of recommended scenic photo spots. Not all of them are really worth checking out but one definitely is: the pedestrian bridge over the Kabura River. From there, you get an incredible view from the river towards the Silk Mill and behind it, the rugged Miyogi Mountain Massif and Mount Asama (2,568 meters), a very active volcano that is covered in deep snow all winter long.

Old shopping street just outside the silk mill, Tomioka, Gunma Prefecture

View from the Kabura River to the silk mill, to Mount Myogi (left) and Mount Asama (covered in snow), Tomioka, Gunma Prefecture

Guided Tour of the Tomioka Silk Mill

Arriving at the entrance of the Silk Mill, I had an appointment with Monsieur Damien Robuchon. The young Frenchman is in charge of handling international public relations for the Silk Mill.

We went on for a tour of the facilities. Monsieur Robuchon's marked French accent added an additional layer of authenticity to his tour: the original conception of the Tomioka Silk Mill was a Franco-Japanese collaboration, after all.

While we stood in front of the East Cocoon Warehouse, perhaps the most significant building in the sprawling silk mill complex, Robuchon gave me the basic historic low-down.

East Cocoon Warehouse, Tomioka, Gunma Prefecture

History of the Tomioka Silk Mill

High quality silk had always been a major export product for Japan. Selling it to the Dutch through their Dejima gateway in Nagasaki during the Edo Period had produced good revenue for Japan. Europe craved Japanese silk.

Once Japan opened its ports to international trade as a result of the Meiji Restoration (1868), international demand became overwhelming. As hard as they tried, the traditional hand-craft silk workshops could not handle the sudden surge in demand.

Shady merchants stepped in and supplied low-quality silk under the label of "Made in Japan" to international traders, seriously threatening the reputation of Japanese quality silk.

The Meiji government stepped in with an unprecedented project - a modern silk factory run by foreigners, introducing not only foreign machinery but thoroughly foreign management styles.

The aim of the new silk factory was not only to produce silk - that most coveted product - but also to introduce Western industrial production methods to Japan. The silk mill was from its onset thought to provide a model for the future of an industrialized Japan.

Woodblock print from the early days of the Tomioka Silk Mill, Tomioka, Gunma Prefecture

Paul Brunat

While we slowly lowly walked through the mill complex, Robuchon went more into the details of the early French-run though Japanese government-owned silk factory.

The Japanese government chose a French trader based in Yokohama, Paul Brunat, to build and run the silk mill.

Brunat was very much given carte blanche on how and where to start the operation. He traveled and researched the traditional silk production areas of the wider Kanto area and eventually settled on Tomioka city.

There, widespread traditional silk craft / silk worm farming ready to provide the needed silk worm cocoons to the processed met with a good supply of fresh water and a sufficient number of coal mines nearby that would be able to deliver the coal needed to fire up the steam-driven modern machinery Monsieur Brunat was going to import from France.

According to tour guide Damien Robuchon, another important factor was that Paul Brunat was reminded by the landscape of Tomioka of the area he grown up in southwest France.

Once the place was decided, the silk mill was built. All the buildings were erected in a style merging French and Japanese building techniques. Japanese style wood frames met French brickwork. Earthquake safety measures met effective modern European industrial design.

Brunat imported the most advanced silk processing technology available in France and he hired French silk machine operators to teach the Japanese workers.

Traditionally, both in France and in Japan, silk reeling workers were women. Thus, the French instructors were female and so were the Japanese workers Brunat was looking for.

Silk reeling machines from the 1980's at the Silk Reeling Plant, Tomioka, Gunma Prefecture

The Red Wine Story

To Brunat's astonishment, none of the young ladies the new job opportunity was advertised at wanted to work at his new facility. Not a single one.

He soon found out the reason: the workers constructing the mill had repeatedly seen the French drinking red wine. There was no drink of that color in Japan - and rumors began to spread that the French were drinking blood.

Was the whole silk mill just a ruse to collect the blood of virgins? The locals, originally very supportive of the silk mill construction, became deeply scared.

It took the first Japanese head manager of the mill, Junchu Odaka, to hire his own 14-year-old daughter as the very first employee of the mill to dispel the rumors.

Tomioka Silk Mill, Tomioka, Gunma Prefecture

The Tomioka Silk Mill as Model Factory

Once the mill began to operate in 1872, it employed several thousand Japanese women hired from all over Kanto and further afield. They lived on-site in dormitories and enjoyed working conditions only the most progressive factories even back in France would offer to their employees. Though free Sundays were the rule in France, 8 hour work days were not yet at the time. Brunat implemented them. Food was served at canteens inside the mill, a hospital took care of the sick.

One such female worker, Ei Wada, kept a diary of her days at the mill in which she describes the daily routine at the mill. For her, the mill felt almost like paradise - which it probably was compared to the harsh working conditions elsewhere in Japan at the time.

In fact, the female workers employed at the Tomioka Silk Mill were supposed to return to their hometowns and to teach the way of modern factory working to the people there. Spreading knowledge about technology on the one hand - but also on modern workers' rights at the same time.

Monsieur Robuchon was a fast talker and his knowledge was deep. He pointed out architectural details here, went into historical anecdotes there, and of course he went into the actual silk making process.

He took me to a demonstration where a woman was performing exactly the task all those workers in the 1870's were hired to do: skillfully extracting silk threads from the silk worm cocoons and reeling them up to be used in weaving silk garments.

The work didn't stop here in the 1870's, of course. In fact, after Paul Brunat departed in about 1875, the Japanese government sold the factory to the private sector.

The machinery was upgraded and went from steam machines to electrically run equipment, manufactured by Japanese corporations such as car maker Nissan. In 1987, the mill finally closed down production.

The buildings were however kept in good shape and they soon were recognized as National Treasures by the Japanese government before they eventually became a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Tomioka Silk Mill Buildings

Most buildings within the silk mill complex date from the 1870's and they have been kept in their original form. Even the French-made window glass dates back to this time.

These original buildings include the East Cocoon Warehouse, the cocoon drying facility, the silk reeling plant, and the Brunat House (where Paul Brunat resided during his time as factory director).

The West Cocoon Warehouse is currently under restoration. For an additional fee of 200 yen, the restoration site can be visited.

The West Cocoon Warehouse is currently under restoration, Tomioka, Gunma Prefecture

Tomioka Silk Mill

1-1 Tomioka

Tomioka City

Gunma Prefecture 370-2316

Tel: 0274 64 0005

Admission: Adults 1,000 yen, high school & university students 250 yen, elementary and primary school students 150 yen

Hours: 9 am-5 pm (last entrance 4.30 pm); closed Wednesday unless Wednesday is a public holiday when it is closed the following day.

Access - Getting to Tomioka Silk Mill

From Tokyo Station take a Hokuriku Shinkansen to Takasaki (50 minutes). There are also cheaper trains from Ueno Station (100 minutes). From Shinjuku Station take the Shonan-Shinjuku Line to Takasaki. Karuizawa is one stop westbound from Takasaki.

From Narita Airport there are limousine highway buses to Takasaki taking about 3 hours. There are also limousine buses from Haneda Airport, Tokyo's other main airport.

There are also highway buses from Shinjuku, Shizuoka, Nagoya and overnight buses from Sendai, Osaka Nara and Kyoto run by Nippon Chuo Bus.

From Takasaki station change to the Joshin Electric Railway and take the train to Joshu Tomioka Station (40 minutes). The trains on the Joshin Electric Railway are not very frequent, so check the train schedule before you go.

Tomioka Silk Mill is a 10 minute, well signposted walk from the station.

Joshu Tomioka Station, Tomioka, Gunma Prefecture

Guided Tours

English or French language tours guided by Damien Robuchon can be arranged for visiting groups by calling the Tomioka Silk Mill visitor center at 0274 64 0005.

Mr. Robuchon is not always present at the silk mill. Therefore, it would be best to make that initial phone call / inquiry in Japanese.

The Tomioka Silk Mill offers audio guides in many languages covering the whole facility for a charge of 200 yen. Alternatively, a free smart phone audio guide is also available. Please read about the details on the website of the Tomioka Silk Mill website (below).

Website

The Tomioka Silk Mill operates an extensive website in Japanese, English, French, Chinese and Korean, providing detailed information on all aspects of the mill as well as a wealth of useful visitor information.

Please check the site before visiting: www.tomioka-silk.jp

At Joshu Tomioka train station as well as at the Silk Mill, many English-language flyers and brochures are available providing details on the mill.

Guide Books on Japan