Tsuruoka Silk

Written and editedby the members of cross cultural
understanding course, Tsuruoka Chuo SHSTABLE OF CONTENTS

Greeting & History of Tsuruoka silk … pp.1－2
The process of making silk material … pp.3 – 4
About the Silk Girls Project … pp.5 – 6Interviews with students who made dresses… pp.7 – 8Ending … pp.9 – 10GREETING
Hello everyone. Thank you for reading this brochure
about Tsuruoka Silk. We are a group of third year
students from the cross cultural understanding course
who are studying English in Tsuruoka Chuo high school.
We have researched about Tsuruoka silk so far because wewant foreigners to know the positive points of Tsuruoka.
So, we decided that our theme is “Tsuruoka silk”. We
researched and summarized them in the brochure.
In September, 2016, we went to Matsugaoka
reclamation field located in Haguro-town, Tsuruoka-city
to learn about sericulture and silk. Indeed, in Japan, only
Tsuruoka-city has silkworm-raising rooms and Yamagataprefecture is famous for Tsuruoka Silk.Through thisbrochure, we want you to know about beautiful TsuruokaSilk.
Please enjoy the Silk Girls’ Collection!
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HISTORY OF TSURUOKA SILK
Shonai clan lost the war in 1869. So, the ex-samurais
had to find a new way to live. In those days, the twolargest exported products were raw silk and tea and thiswas immediately after the Meiji Restoration. So they
started cultivating mulberry fields for silkworms to eat
and built silkworm raising rooms. They started to raisesilkworms and to grow tea.
Cultivation started in August 17th and then continued
for about 100ha, lasting 58 days. As for growing tea, theyfailed to grow it. But later, in modern time, some people
managed to begin again 6 years ago.
Now, Matugaoka has the only silkworm raising rooms
in Japan making Yamagata Prefecture famous for
Tsuruoka silk.
About
Matsugaoka
reclamation field (inHaguro-town,Tsuruoka-city)… The building itself has
three floors. Floors 1 and 2
are for raising the silkworms
and floor 3 is for ventilation
2

Cycle of the Silkworm’s Life

How to Make “Raw Silk Thread”

Eggs⇒ Silkworm⇒
Mature Silkworm⇒
Cocoon ⇒(1) Remove the bad cocoons(2)Extract the pupa from the cocoons bysteaming them(3) Dry the cocoons(4) Boil the cocoons, then find a thread(5) Collect together the threads and wrap themaround the frame(6) Prevent the thread from Catching then use abigger frame(7) Remove “Raw Silk Thread” from the frame

Matured Butterfly

Breeding of Silkworms(1) Prepare the rooms(2) Gather the silkworms(3) Give the mulberry leaves to the silkworms(4) Breed the silkworms(5) Send to a silk mill

34GREETING FROM A STUDENTOF HOME ECONOMICS COURSEIN TSURUOKA CHUO HIGH SCHOOL“SILK GIRLS’ ACTIVITIES”“WHAT I WANT TO TELL YOU THROUGH THISFASHION SHOW”

 What is Silk Girls’ Project?
The“Silk Girls’ Project” was firstfounded 7 years ago. Students wholearn about the silk production ofclothes in Tsuruoka Chuo high school are called “SilkGirls”. The Silk Girls will explain the silk culture thathas supported Tsuruoka’s industry for many years.
 Why was Silk Girls Project founded?
Tsuruoka-city, where all processes and techniques increation of silk products have been inherited, is thenorthernmost point of silk production in Japan. Becauseof this, the Silk Girls study history of Tsuruoka Silk andof industry. Also, they will explain the positive points ofTsuruoka Silk through dress making, as well as manyother uses.
 What kind of activities did they do?
The Silk Girls participated in the “Silk Tour”, where
they learned all about silk. Also, they participated in“Ginza Yukata festival”, where they wore Yukata they
made themselves. Fashion shows have been held atvarious locations, the “Daisangyo Festival”, the Marika
and the welfare facility, four years ago. These fashionshows have also been called the “Silk Girls’ Collection”.

Hello. Thank you for visiting the Silk Girls collection!
We are the Silk Girls of Tsuruoka Chuo high school andare glad to be able to show you our beautiful dresses.
Our theme of this year’s collection is “INFINITY”.
All the dresses in the collection are made of Tsuruoka
Silk-material. Tsuruoka Silk, which is used as dressmaterials, is produced in Tsuruoka-city. Indeed, inJapan, Tsuruoka-city is the only area that has all theresources
availabletoproducesilk-materials.
Tsuruoka-city is proud of this silk because it is a famous
product all across Japan and is regarded as preciousmaterial.
We want you guys to know how beautiful Tsuruoka
silk is, through the dresses made of Tsuruoka Silk. Also,
this year, we tried to make a lot of types of dresses.
The theme of this year’s collection is “INFINITY”.
Today we will show you that INFINITY is the word toshow high school students’ possibility.
We hope you will enjoy the collection!

56

INTERVIEW― We interviewed students who made dresses
using Tsuruoka-Silk.

Q,

Which points on your dress are you

particular about?
― I focused especially on making theshape of the skirt beautiful.

Dress Made of Tsuruoka Silk material
Q, Which points on
your dress are you
particular about?
―It’s design. I
designed a simple
dress to show the sheen of
Tsuruoka Silk-material.
Q, Which parts on your dress
did you use silk-material?
―It’s 100% silk.
Q, How long did
it take to makeyour dress?
― About onemonth.

Q,

Which parts on your dress did you

use silk-material?
―I used it on the skirt.
Q,How long did it taketo make your dress?
―Two months.

Color Dress
Q,

Which points on yourdress are you particular
about?
―I was most particular
about the handmade butterflies on the chest.
Q, How long did it take to make your dress?
―About one month.
I was so surprised to hear the clothing course members
have been making the dress during the classes and till verylate after school!

78

―Ending
Thank you for reading. Did you enjoy this brochure that
we made and today’s Silk Girls’ Collection? We believethat you were able to have a great time today.
So far, we have told you about Tsuruoka Silk. Do you
now know how great the silk produced in Tsuruoka is?
Tsuruoka Silk is one of the famous products Yamagata
Prefecture is proud of. Actually, Tsuruoka Silk is used inmaterials for products such as stalls, bags and so on
because of its quality. There is a company that makes
products using Tsuruoka Silk and the company’s name is“kibiso”. If you are interested in it, please go to kibiso’s
website and get some information about how and where tobuy them.
As we wrote on page2 (greeting-article), we want more
and more people to know the positive points of Tsuruokacity. We could learn about Tsuruoka Silk in detail throughactions of our study because we went to Matsugaoka
reclamation field located in Haguro-town, Tsuruoka-city
to write this brochure. There we saw silkworms, oldbuildings and listened to the story and history about why
silk industry was started in Tsuruoka. We found it
important to go to places with your own feet. Though
everyone doesn’t know about Tsuruoka in detail,10in fact, there are a lot of places for sightseeing anddelicious foods grown in Tsuruoka. So we do want you togo and experience them yourself. Please see how
wonderful Tsuruoka-city is by yourself.

―Edited bySuzuka Goto
Shuhei Hashimoto
Rana Miyazaki
Chihiro Honma
Kairi Watanabe
Mai Takahashi
Students taking the course of cross cultural
understanding

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