PASTEXPERIENCE HISTORY

Honnō-ji. Edo. Pompeii. Where will you go?

Interactive episodes

1872 · Opening of Tomioka Silk Mill · Tomioka, Gunma

Hands that learn to reel silk

Learning at a new mill

Check the reeled silk and explain the stages to another learner.

The thread has broken. What needs checking before work resumes?

Begin the story

Preparing your story…

Explore the diagram: Cocoons, the mill and the spread of skills
Explore how it works

Cocoons, the mill and the spread of skills

Is installing machinery enough to change silk production elsewhere?

White cocoons are brought to the mill with access to water and raw materials.
01Gather cocoons
CocoonsWater supply

Materials and water feed into mechanical production.

Raw materials and quality support exports

Rising raw-silk exports made quality improvement important. Cocoon supply and water affected the mill’s location; machines required supporting conditions.

Sources and scope

These illustrations explain processes and institutions rather than reconstructing actual people, buildings or layouts. Cutaways and insets show hidden structures or separate locations.

History of Tomioka Silk Mill ↗

Gather cocoons

100%

Scroll the enlarged image to inspect details.

White cocoons are brought to the mill with access to water and raw materials.

White cocoons are brought to the mill with access to water and raw materials.

Workers Haru and Mine, their mistakes, teaching scenes and dialogue are fictional. The sequence simplifies documented basic processes. The winding alignment is a conceptual model, not an operating instruction or actual adjustment setting for 1872 machinery.

Explore the time and place
Sources
  1. Understanding Tomioka Silk Mill ↗

    富岡市 · Purpose, location, opening, training, Wada Ei and operational history.

  2. Tomioka Silk Mill and Related Sites ↗

    UNESCO世界遺産センター · The connected sites for reeling, sericulture, education and egg storage.

  3. The silk industry ↗

    群馬県 · Basic stages including sorting, cooking, reeling and re-reeling. This modern process explanation is not treated as a detailed 1872 operating manual.