oh dear. where to begin? let’s start here:
needless to say, we are living each day more amazed than the next. our group is learning so much- even experts who are among us are seeing things they have only read or written about. part of the fun i am having is watching everyone’s knowledge grow and seeing the information sink in. i can only imagine the places it may lead all of us in the future.
i realize now i perhaps was a bit optimistic about how much time i would have (and underestimated how much it would take) to upload, edit, and write on the go. please forgive any delay and rest assured i will give it the time needed even if it extends beyond the actual physical tour itself. this is, after all, a virtual tour and time is really nonexistent in this realm anyway.
this video is actually from day 2- our visit to the Usui filature mill. this is where silk cocoons are warehoused for reeling into silk fiber. each strand of silk, about the thickness of a human hair, is created from the filaments of 7-9 cocoons. they begin their journey in the sorting room where they are culled and only those that meet specs are sent on ahead. there really is very little waste in this operation. those that don’t meet the specs for reeling are sent along for other end purposes. think willy wonka and the nut sorting room. the rest are off onto the reeling room where they are brushed while floating in hot water to remove the outer waste silk which is twisted into a coarse stiff sericin filled silk fiber called kibisu. from there the cocoons move along to be reeled where one worker can supervise 100 reels with this automatic machinery as opposed to one worker to one reel in earlier days. a 100% increase in productivity. from there the full reels are sent to the drying room where they are automatically rewound into hanks for drying. i will upload video of this step next. not tonight though…it is nearing midnight here and we have a 6:30 am call time. tomorrow we visit the ichiku kubota museum and sato sensei, the indigo dyer.
a few photos…
mata ne
nemutai desu!!
(a couple of notes- sorry for the typos on the video-too tired. also, didn’t mean to add music to the slideshow. too late for me to redo now. just mute it of lower the sound. …..must get some sleep……)
Silk Study Tour to Japan 