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Abstract

Vol. 57, No. 1, pp. 1-15 (2006)

“A Reconsideration of Developing Factors for the Japanese Sericulture Industry -From the Viewpoint of Comparative History of Technology-”
Yukihiko Kiyokawa (Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University)

The sericulture industry of Japan had realized very rapid accelerated growth during the period from the beginning of Meiji to early Showa. This paper aims to clarify the factors promoting such a rapid development by paying special attention to technological innovations in the industry.
We found two major innovations which were not observable in any other sericultural country such as China, India, Italy and France. One of them was the re-reeling system of raw silk from a small reel to a large one. This system made it possible to test the raw silk for each individual reeler. The testing encouraged adoption of a quality-oriented piece-rate wage system in many filatures. Thus the re-reeling system realized gradual improvements of raw silk quality, particularly in the Taisho period.
Another unique innovation was an expansion of summer-fall rearings of bi-voltine silkworms by improving their poor quality through hybridization. The rearing was also encouraged by development of the low temperature incubation method in popular uses of mountainside caves. Furthermore, the cocoon production by bi-voltine silkworms was promoted by development of the F1 hybridization method and the artificial hatching method. All of these innovations contributed to realize the bivoltinity-centered sericulture industry in Japan.