Japan was once the world’s number one producer of raw silk. In the 1950s, it accounted for approximately 60% of the world’s production, but today 99.8% of domestic consumption is imported from overseas, and the silk (sericulture) culture that existed before that time is disappearing.
Admiring the simple silk products of the pre-modern era, Hitotsuya has decided to start sericulture, albeit on a small scale, by reclaiming abandoned farmland and starting in the spring of 2021 to grow mainly mulberries (Ichinose) for sericulture, as well as mulberries for jam. In addition to mulberries, we planted about 60 mulberries.
After that, we continued to expand the mulberry field, and while we were waiting for the mulberry trees to grow, we built a sericulture farm to raise sericulture, and we finally started in earnest in 2023!
Hitotsuya Silk
▼ A scene of mulberry planting work.
▼ Management of mulberry fields.
▼ Creating a DIY sericulture farm.
▼ Sericulture was a dream come true. There are still only a few.
▼ And finally, it became a cocoon!
▼ Harvested cocoons.
▼ At Hitotsuya, this is spun into thread.
▼ This is woven into silk products such as shawls.
