Changes

By the 1760s, Japanese domestic production of silk had grown to such a point that the realm was able to actually begin ''exporting'' silk, and importing gold and silver, reversing the flows which had so concerned the shogunate a century earlier.<ref>Hellyer, 73-78.</ref>  

By the 1760s, Japanese domestic production of silk had grown to such a point that the realm was able to actually begin ''exporting'' silk, and importing gold and silver, reversing the flows which had so concerned the shogunate a century earlier.<ref>Hellyer, 73-78.</ref>  

Japanese silk production first appears in Western records in [[1859]]. In that year, Italy is said to have been producing five times as much raw silk as Japan, and China ten times as much. Japan's production expanded quickly, however, growing five-fold by [[1862]], just as French and Italian silkworm cultivation was ravaged by disease. Fifty years later, in [[1912]], Japan was the top exporter of silk in the world, and by 1938, roughly four-fifths of world silk production was controlled by Japan. In total, roughly half of Japanese exports in the [[Meiji period]] were textiles or textile-related products.<ref name=conant74>Conant, Ellen. "Cut from Kyoto Cloth: Takeuchi Seihô and his Artistic Milieu." ''Impressions'' 33 (2012). p74.</ref> Where Edo period silk production is often lauded as an example of Japanese proto-industrialization, contributing to great improvements in livelihoods for those who engaged in such activities, Meiji period industrial factory production of silk is often pointed to as representative of the grueling and oppressive conditions under which factory workers (in the case of silk mills, often chiefly young women) were forced to work, very long hours, for little pay. The [[Tomioka silk mill]] laborers strike of [[1898]] is a particularly famous example of numerous such incidents; the 1979 film ''Aa, Nomugi toge'' ("Ah! Nomugi Pass") presents a fictionalized account of the experiences of such silk mill workers circa 1900-1905.

Japanese silk production first appears in Western records in [[1859]]. In that year, Italy is said to have been producing five times as much raw silk as Japan, and China ten times as much. Japan's production expanded quickly, however, growing five-fold by [[1862]], just as French and Italian silkworm cultivation was ravaged by disease. Fifty years later, in [[1912]], Japan was the top exporter of silk in the world, and by 1938, roughly four-fifths of world silk production was controlled by Japan. In total, roughly half of Japanese exports in the [[Meiji period]] were textiles or textile-related products.<ref name=conant74>Conant, Ellen. "Cut from Kyoto Cloth: Takeuchi Seihô and his Artistic Milieu." ''Impressions'' 33 (2012). p74.</ref> And roughly one-quarter of the silk production in the country was in [[Nagano prefecture]].<ref>William Coaldrake, "Unno: Edo Period Post Town of the Central Japan Alps," ''Asian Art'' 5 (Spring 1992), 24.</ref> Where Edo period silk production is often lauded as an example of Japanese proto-industrialization, contributing to great improvements in livelihoods for those who engaged in such activities, Meiji period industrial factory production of silk is often pointed to as representative of the grueling and oppressive conditions under which factory workers (in the case of silk mills, often chiefly young women) were forced to work, very long hours, for little pay. The [[Tomioka silk mill]] laborers strike of [[1898]] is a particularly famous example of numerous such incidents; the 1979 film ''Aa, Nomugi toge'' ("Ah! Nomugi Pass") presents a fictionalized account of the experiences of such silk mill workers circa 1900-1905.

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