The Imperial family’s tradition of growing silkworms as a symbolic custom dates back the 8th century. The custom had lapsed for a while. In 1871, then Empress Shoken restarted the long forgotten custom. This practice was passed on to Empress Teimei in Taisho Period, Empress Kojun in Showa Period, then now to Empress Michiko in Heisei Period. In the vast property …
The egg of a silkworm is tiny, about 1.3mm. As soon as they come out of the egg, they start eating mulberry leaves. When they stop eating, they are ready to molt. They molt four times in the course of about a month. When they stop eating after having molted four times, that’s the sign …
In the last decade, the Japanese government has come up with new strategies to revive its sericulture. One is branding and traceability. The government issues a certificate that spells out the specificity of silk cocoons, name of the farmer who grew them, of the spinner, of the weaver and of the dyer of the final …
New strategies for the revival of Japan’s sericulture Read More »
The decline of Japanese sericulture has accelerated in the last 20 years. In 1995 there were 13,640 sericulture farmer households. The number was down to 393 in 2014. From 1974 to 1994 the Japanese government protected its sericulture farmers with a law that kept domestic raw silk prices artificially high by requiring all silk imports …
Protection policy didn’t protect Japan’s sericulture Read More »
By the 1930’s Japan was the world’s largest producer of raw silk with over 30% market share. Two-thirds of the production was exported, mainly to the US. Production drastically decreased during World War II. After the war, the Japanese government tried to revitalize sericulture. However, with commercialization of nylon and other synthetic materials, Japan’s raw …
Japan’s raw silk now… On the verge of extinction Read More »
From the time when Japan opened its doors to the West in the late 19th century until late 1930’s, silk export was the major driving force of Japan’s economic growth. Even though Japan had been raising silk worms and producing silk for a long time, its quality had been inferior to that of China’s, and …
Silk… Once the driving force of modern Japan’s economy Read More »
The article below is from Japan’s Kimono+ Vol. II/No.55 “Silk was introduced to Japan about 200 BCE The oldest silk fabric in Japan was found in Arita Ruins (Yayoi period) in Fukuoka Prefecture, and its thread count was 40 in warp and 20 in weft per centimeter, much more coarse than one found in China. …
Noriko Kiyota is a publisher, editor, writer and photographer. Above all she loves kimono. For almost 50 years, her magazine, Japanese Kimono +, has been educating Kimono enthusiasts and advising the kimono industry how to adapt their business to lifestyle changes in Japan. To insure that it never diverges from a consumer’s point of view, her …