ABSTRACT
On a spring morning in 1871, a group of workmen gathered in a remote valley in Gunma prefecture to break ground on what was to become the Meiji government’s model filature. According to public pronouncements, Tomioka Silk Filature was being built as part of a government initiative to improve the quality of Japan’s raw silk through the dissemination of Western silk reeling technology.1 As a model factory based on Western methods, Tomioka was supposed to be a technology showcase and a training center. The factory, an impressive complex of brick buildings, housed the latest French-made machinery powered by steam engines. Visitors, including many government officials and the royal family, flocked to the backwoods of Gunma to marvel at Japan’s technological progress.
