When around 1864 a disease devastated the silk-producing industries of France and Italy it put pressure on Japanese and Chinese silk producers to fill the increased demand from Europe. Supported by both the government and private sector, Japanese silk exports skyrocketed, and Japan became the world’s leading exporter of silk by 1912. Technology transfer and direct foreign investment in Japan’s sericulture and silk-reeling industries in turn benefited Europe and helped to finance the modernization of Japan. Textiles became the lead sector in Japanese industrialization to fund the efforts to modernize. The momentum started with silk reeling, then passed to cotton, and later wool and rayon.
In 1866, Satsuma domain officials contracted with the Platt Brothers of England to set up a cotton mill in Kagoshima, employing Western-style spinning mules. Officials of the Maebashi domain made the decision to invest in the establishment of a silk-reeling mill based on Western models in 1870. With the help of a Swiss technician named Casper Mueller they set-up Italian equipment.
One of the most famous factories of the Meiji era was the Tomioka Silk Reeling Works, which relied on French machinery and expertise of Paul Brunat to advise on the operations of the mill.
Until the early 1920s the majority of female textile workers were between the ages of 14 and 25. With little freedom to leave the factory compound, they were often housed in overcrowded and unhygienic mill dormitories. The situation improved only slowly over time when the Factory Law of 1911 imposed minimum health and safety standards. After protests and increased activism and new labour organizations the government passed a revised law in 1923, which was enforced in most factories by 1929.
01 Artwork: Postcard 1873 republished 1926 – Study of the workers and women at the Tomioka Silk
02 Artist: Herbert Geddes (Canadian,1877–1970) Artwork: 1910 – Reeling silk at a silk factory in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture
03 Artwork: circa 1908, Swiss textile merchant in Yokohama, group photo of employees
04 artwork: 1910 – Women at a silk factory are reeling silk from cocoons. Uneducated and from impoverished families young woman became factory workers, especially at silk and cotton factories which produced Japan’s top export commodities and powered its industrial revolution.
05 Artist: Kuniaki Utagawa (1835-1888) Artwork: 1877 – Illustration of the Silk Reeling Machine at the Japanese National Industrial Exposition.