BIRTH OF SILK

foreign [Music] there is a monk which has been bred by man and can no longer fly foreign [Music] the eggs are hatched and become worms which go through four light sleeping periods in 24 to 25 days they grow by an a snitching 14 000 times [Music] the worm turns into a larva which spews a delicate filament to make a cocoon about itself to shelter it during the pupa stage man reels this thread for his clothes and adornment [Music] the mulberry leaves which have been sheaved during the winter are untied with the coming of spring the silk growing Farmers become suddenly busy the Earth awakes from its slumber life returns to raise the moldings the Mulberry was once a very ordinary tree growing in the fields and mountains man improved and planted it in farms this insect which feeds on the Mulberry is very close to the silkworm but it exterminated as a pest s Village prefecture some 100 kilometers north of Tokyo is a typical silk growing community [Music] there are an estimated 440 000 silk growing farmers in Japan at present this is eight percent of the total farming households growing Farmers go to the neighborhood Shrine to the right of the long-nosed Goblin to pray for a good harvest [Music] foreign some 200 years ago it was interrupted during World War II because Farmers concentrated on food production [Music] present about 1 400 households raised silkworms and make cocoons three to five times a year the farmers raised the young silkworms at a collective Farm located in each district the funny farm of fujimi Village is one of them a man called a breeder distributes the hatched eggs to each silkworm raising community the raising of the spring silkworm starts in early May I yeah the silkworm is still covered by Downy hair and is only about three millimeters in length the silkworm eats the young soft leaves and grows day by day it eats only the Mulberry leaf the silkworm is still young it is cold outside when did man discover the work of the silkworm and create silk as far back as 3 300 years ago the words Mulberry silkworm and silk filament were inscribed on the bones of animals during the Ying period in China [Music] foreign silk found sticking to a copper jar among the remains of the Ying period is believed to be the oldest extant silk in the world [Music] the history of silk goes still further back to one thousand years before the Ying period or 20 to 25 centuries BC a cocoon believed to have some relation with man has been dug up in the village of seeing in China's shanxi province [Music] the silk growing method which originated in China during the Ying period was subsequently introduced to other countries by the first century it was widely carried out in and around nangpo province in the Korean peninsula the oldest silk in Japan was discovered in the tati iwa remains in izuka city in Northern Kyushu this site is believed to date back to the first century or possibly a hundred years earlier a sword was found among these remains fibers sticking to this sword are believed to be Japanese in origin thus the origin of silk growing in Japan dates back two thousand years [Music] foreign [Music] subsequently Gorgeous Fabrics came from the Asian mainland in the 4th Century Koreans were invited to Japan where they settled in Kyoto and taught silk growing and weaving along with rice growing city culture is the oldest farming activity in Japan [Music] the silkworm is protected from the cold and diseased and grows in safety the silkworms hatch from the eggs weigh 20 times heavier than at Birth in only four to five days time the bed is expanded and made more comfortable as they grow the mulberry leaves are increased when necessary four people chosen from among the 24 households of the farisericultural association are responsible for the raising of these silkworms they are all heads of families experienced in growing silver the wives work in rotation according to the instructions of these four men all the people raise the silkworms there is no competition sometimes there is a common Danger [Music] it is still cold along the mountains in mid-may Frost appears in some places at pre-dawn when the Mercury dips to its lowest it freezes on the mulberry leaves as water drops the farmers make a fire to warm the Mulberry fields and smoke away the frost the villagers challenge their common Danger the mulberry trees even so nature sometimes defeats the farmers they are obliged to bury the young silkworms that they have raised so carefully the silkworm has grown 50 times in only eight days since birth it eats a lot of Mulberry in two more days the silkworms will be distributed among the farmers [Applause] the farmers are busy preparing for the day nobody close when the silkworms grown at the city cultural Farm will be distributed to them the Nakajima family has increased the number of spring silkworms to an unprecedented level the head of the family Nakajima consulted the entire family in making the decision his wife Fuji spoke out most strongly for increasing the number his son's wife is familiar with silk growing because she has raised silkworms at her home since she was a young girl she too called for increasing the number and so it was finally decided that they would raise a hundred grams of spring silkworm eggs this is the largest quantity in the fatty District [Applause] the old woman of the family grandmother Bing becomes restless at this time of the year eldest son is conscientious and likes to help others [Music] the mold release increase in fujimi villages May comes the nakajimas too are ready to welcome the silkworms [Music] the silkworms which have been raised for 10 days at the collective Farm are distributed to each household each family will now raise the silkworms on their own mulberry leaves the silkworms have been raised collectively under the same conditions now for the next 20 days each family will raise them in its own way skill and experience will come from now on [Music] [Music] [Music] the silkworms are growing well this year spring was late in coming silkworms are very vulnerable to cold when the weather is cold their growth slows down which means that they make cocoons late too the longer they take to grow the more mulberry leaves are needed the Mulberry fields are not big the farmers cannot afford to waste the Mulberry [Music] only as much Mulberry as is necessary for the silkworms to produce many cocoons for this purpose the leaves are cut thin to enable the young silkworms to eat them with ease the winter was very cold and neuralgia is still troubling being yet she cannot afford to be idle when the entire family is so busy she still has the strength that enabled her to raise eight children I'm not [Music] [Music] when casual resumed silk growing after the war he decided to earn more than half of the year's total living expenses from it some investment was necessary to achieve this goal he built this silk growing Hut in 1965. being the first to do so in his district until then the silkworms were raised in the main house but the people had little room for themselves the young people disliked the idea of raising silkworms in their home so casual built this Hut he wanted to raise the silkworms only in the hut but his scheme was not successful because of the rapid rise in prices and the cost of living he had to increase the silkworms to offset the rise in the cost of living and he had to grow the mulberry trees for these silkworms why not build another Hut but that would cost money besides he'd have to use part of the Mulberry field if he were to build another Hut both kazuo and his son Saburo decided to continue as they were for some time yet foreign [Music] foreign s grow rapidly their beds must be made larger so that they can grow in Comfort the silkworms hatch from the eggs grow suddenly after 15 days they have grown approximately 5 000 times a larger place is obviously needed both Fuji and Aki the wives have also grown up with silkworms since their childhood Fuji is lonely when there are no salt worms she is restless unless mulberry trees are growing around her home the Nakajima family is Raising 100 grams of silkworm eggs this spring that means 220 000 silkworms all together [Applause] the nakajimas have one hectare of Mulberry Fields a the mold release from these fields are fed to 100 grams of silkworm in Spring in all they will raise five batches of silkworms through into the autumn in terms of eggs this means 300 grams or 700 000 silkworms altogether the vital thing for a silk growing farmer is held best to make use of his limited Mulberry Fields so that the maximum quantity of mulberry leaves can be obtained to feed the silkworms and thereby produce raw silk [Applause] foreign [Music] in the last three days before its physical cool the silkworm eats sixty percent of the mulberry leaves it eats in its entire lifetime picking the mulberry leaves becomes a waste of Labor entire branches are given the silkworm eats voraciously it is a battle for time between the Mulberry eating silkworm and the Mulberry cutting man the farmer cultivates the Mulberry and feeds it to the silkworm this work is repeated several times in a year the muldery tree produces leaves only for half a year from May and only when the sun is shining does it produce the green leaves [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] the weather continues to be quite cool this spring and it is not the best of conditions for the silkworm but the silkworms grow quite well the silkworm beds are subjected to a growing weight of mulberry leaves tension increases among the farmers as the feeding process progresses [Music] as the rainy season approaches in late May casual becomes concerned whether the Mulberry in his field alone will be enough he goes to buy more from his relatives [Applause] foreign on the 24th day after hatching the last feeding is done the silkworm has grown about 14 000 times since it hatched from an egg it stops eating its body is full of the glutinous filament substance [Music] thank you this year the silkworms are heavier than in past years [Music] foreign [Music] 's eldest son Makoto is attending an agricultural High School near his home [Music] um the battle with the Mulberry is over and the family can spend a day of leisure for a change retirement foreign before spewing the filaments the silkworm shows a slight change of color it becomes semi-transparent as if it contained wax this is the stage before transformation into a pupa and now a new battle with the silkworm has started the silkworms which have ceased eating start moving to spew the filament a new movement has started inside their bodies the silkworms are put into their nests or holders as they are called the Cocoon spinning starts all the silkworms must be placed in their holders quickly experience though everyone is this is extremely busy work the arms and fingers become numb the backaches [Music] the silkworms start spewing the filaments they intertwine and form a mound [Music] the family normally receives its guests in this room for today it has become a workshop Makoto did not go to school today but it's a very special day for the nakajimas he didn't like silkworms before but recently he feels some attachment for him [Music] the rotating holder became popular after the war each silkworm enters the frame and makes its cocoon the nakajimas adopted this method although it's a little costly foreign [Music] ERS use this straw holder in the past now it is used as an additional holder in the spring and Autumn when the number of silkworms greatly increases foreign foreign [Music] it took a whole day for the entire family to pick the 220 000 silkworms from the mulberry leaves and placed them in the hole the silkworms climbed to find their nests the upper part of the holder becomes heavy and turns the silkworms climb again and the holder turns again and so it goes on foreign ERS have some Paddy fields which have been handed down from their ancestors even when silk growing is not going well they can subsist so long as they grow rice the patties have been increased from generation to generation rice growing cannot be neglected [Music] man found the silkworm in its wild State increased its numbers improved it and created a worm that spews filament men improved the Mulberry found in the fields and mountains and created a muldery that could be cultivated on a farm the Mulberry is eaten by the silkworm and is transformed into a white filament in the silkworm's body the silkworm eats only mulberry leaves nothing else man made the silkworm and without man to feed it the silkworm no doubt would die with man to take care of it a single silkworm can produce 1500 meters of white filament [Music] The Peculiar characteristic of silk is born already at the time the silkworm spews the filament each fiber is nearly triangular in shape and creates the effect of a prism its Brilliance is not the only reason why silk is regarded as valuable rather the reason lies in its field the filament is Supple yet strong it preserves warmth and is light chemical textiles have still to attain the feel of silk [Music] the silkworm spins a cocoon in about one day after getting into the holder [Music] foreign the silkworm turns into a lava and spends about a week inside the Cocoon during this sleep man kills the lava and takes the filament about 37 to 38 kilograms of cocoon had obtained from 10 grams of age the important thing is how to increase this output sometimes two silkworms spin a single cocoon this is useless because when the machine spins the yarn the filaments do not unravel well shipping such cocoon would bring a bad reputation to the farmers of the fatty District saboro does not want that to happen foreign 's job to remove the fluff that appears when the silkworm spins the Cocoon only then is the final product ready the Nakajima family has always produced nice round cocoon balls the cocoons are ready to be sold tomorrow Bing is more familiar with the straw holder on which he has worked since her girlhood but cocoons made with the straw holder sell cheaper these days than those made with a rotating holder Bing finds this very strange a single cocoon produces approximately 1 500 meters of filament the white slender filament is twisted and reeled in a given thickness raw silk and various silk products for once a major export of Japan it can be said that raw silk gave Japan the foundation of its Economic Development [Music] [Applause] [Music] the silk is processed it has died in mud it is colored with dyes obtained from trees and grass and becomes even more beautiful [Applause] [Applause] foreign the technique of silk processing developed with the history of silk growing man raised the silkworm processed the filament that came from its body and used it himself weaving and dying became separate and independent crafts and produced the beauty peculiarly Japanese [Music] foreign became all the more valuable it was a natural blessing silk gave Beauty to people's lives [Music] foreign [Music] s did a very good job this spring the 100 grams of eggs produced 40 kilograms of cocoons [Music] man has raised silkworms and grown the Mulberry from ancient times the Mulberry passed through the silkworm's body and changed into a beautiful filament this was a valuable product of man's Wisdom [Music] covered a strange energy in a living thing and used it to produce clothing [Music] foreign [Music] times as well as the day the Sun the air water and the Earth help the delicate work of the silkworm and the Mulberry they have thrived on the natural resources of this planet [Music] it is the farmers who have used the resources fruitfully we call that effort of theirs agriculture [Music]