This time we explore Hachioji, a suburban city with abundant nature located about an hour away from central Tokyo. With a history of mulberry cultivation and sericulture, it prospered for many decades as a textile town. We meet artisans who practice traditional silk weaving and visit Tokyo's only remaining silkworm farm. Later, we make our way to the local geisha entertainment district, which flourished alongside the city's textile industry and is now looking to adapt to the changing times.
Today on "Dive in Tokyo,"
we explore Hachioji.
It's a suburban city in west Tokyo,
home to many parks and an abundance of nature.
A long history of mulberry cultivation and silkworm
farming established it as a center of silk weaving.
How fun!
We'll learn about its fascinating past...
and see how the local geisha tradition
is making its way back into the spotlight.
We will preserve the good things while also adapting to the times.
Join us as we set out to discover the historic charm
of the city of mulberry and silk.
Dive in Tokyo
Hachioji - The City of Mulberry and Silk
The city of Hachioji is in west Tokyo,
less than an hour by train or car from the urban center.
We begin our day in front of Hachioji Station.
Hi, I'm Saskia from Belgium, and I live in Tokyo.
Today we're here in Hachioji. And Hachioji is actually very famous
for its long history of silk production and kimono textile production.
And as a kimono lover myself, I'm really looking forward to see more textiles
and to learn more about this history and this culture.
So let's dive right in.
Saskia is a researcher of kimono culture
and Japanese fashion at a university in Tokyo,
where she also teaches.
The first area we will explore is a busy road
that's a short walk from the station.
This is the Koshu Kaido,
which runs across the city from east to west.
It was established roughly 400 years ago by the Edo shogunate.
Hachioji served as a major posting station along a greater network of routes
that connected old Tokyo to outer provinces and Kyoto.
Today it's a major thoroughfare lined with commercial and residential buildings.
Looks like something's caught Saskia's attention.
Oh, wow.
It's beautiful.
It's a building that has echoes of a traditional storehouse.
Hello!
This is a lovely building you've got here.
- It has a lot of history.
- I imagine!
Kidokoro Masao is the sixth-generation owner of this establishment.
When was this place built?
My family started building this place in the mid-19th century.
The interior was completed in the late century.
His ancestors ran the family business out of a storehouse.
They were a wholesaler of commodities such as salt,
which was protected by a government monopoly,
as well as oil and soap.
Today they sell household sundries.
Kidokoro says the interior tells the story of days gone by.
That chest of drawers is from the Edo period.
- Whoa, Edo?
- Yes.
An antique chest!
It was a medicine chest for herbs and such.
I see.
If you touch it, it might fall apart!
The storehouse is the only building from that era
that remains along the Hachioji stretch of the Koshu Kaido.
This city was heavily damaged by air raids during World War II.
But miraculously, Kidokoro's store survived.
He says the building had some special protection.
This is a German-made shutter.
Interesting.
In the prewar days this was leading-edge.
- It's yet to break down.
- Wow.
The shop's metal shutter protected it through the war and beyond,
and is still going strong.
- This thing is special to me.
- It's very unusual.
Yeah, you don't see many of these around.
We continue along this historic road,
which is home to many old businesses.
This one was founded roughly 140 years ago.
May I come in?
Hello!
This is fourth-generation owner Hashimoto Osamu and his wife Yukiko.
Their shelves are lined with dyes, pigments, paints, and other chemicals.
Originally, they specialized in textile dyes.
Back in those days, they were among the largest of dozens
of purveyors based in the neighborhood.
They showed us an old shop ledger from 1920.
It has the names of items here. They kept a record of orders.
These are chemicals for dyeing.
Fascinating.
For example, where it says "orange" here, this was an imported chemical dye.
When you look through you can see we sold both chemical and plant dyes.
Oh wow.
Here it says "glue."
The shop's history is intertwined with the local textile industry.
I come from a family that sold looms, that is, weaving machines.
And my mother-in-law's family specialized in twisting yarn.
Has the town changed over the years?
Yes.
Off the main road here it used to be a neighborhood of looms.
Every day I'd hear the clattering of machines from all over.
I grew up very aware that this was a textile town.
The Hashimotos tell us there's a local textile factory still in operation.
- Hello!
- Hi!
I'm Saskia.
Sawai Shin is a textile artisan and fourth-generation factory owner.
His firm handles all aspects of silk and other textile production in-house,
from hand-weaving and machine-weaving to dyeing fabrics.
I can hear the machines.
Here there are multiple automatic looms hard at work.
Amazing!
Today they're weaving fabric that will be used for making stoles.
A young artisan oversees the process.
It's interesting to get to create such a wide variety of textiles.
Sounds fun.
I really enjoy it!
Sawai says there's something he wants to show us.
A keepsake of his grandfather, who had a passion for mastering his craft.
It's a book of silk fabric samples produced at the factory in 1936.
Wow, lovely!
With all these colors I imagine this took a long time to make.
This was done using a warp "kasuri" technique.
It's beautiful.
It's meant to evoke a "temari" hand ball.
I see, that's why it's in a round shape.
In Hachioji, silk fabric has traditionally been made by
dyeing the threads before weaving them.
That technique is currently carried on by seven local artisans,
including Sawai.
Feel the fabric here.
It feels a little thick.
But after a few years of use, it'll become softer.
I imagine.
That's what's great about kimono. They get better the more you wear them.
In the second half of the 18th century,
Hachioji became known throughout the region as the "Mulberry City."
Thanks to the Koshu Kaido route,
it became a gathering place for producers of textiles and raw silk,
who set up bustling markets.
The city was surrounded by hilly terrain,
with few flatland areas suitable for growing crops.
For local farmers, sericulture was a valuable source of income.
They planted mulberry trees, raised silkworms, and produced silk.
That tradition lives on today.
To learn more, we head back to the station area to meet up with our next guide.
Mikamo Yukiko is an expert on Hachioji's sericulture
and textile manufacturing.
She'll show us a few spots that offer insight into the local history.
Our first stop is a short walk away.
Check out the name of this street.
Ah, Kuwanamiki!
This street is literally "mulberry-lined road."
Look over there.
All those trees with large branches are actually mulberries.
Wow, look at that!
Mulberry trees are essential for sericulture,
as silkworms are mostly fed mulberry leaves.
It's rare in Japan for an entire street to be lined with them.
These trees are a vital link to the city's past.
Next, Mikamo takes us to a spot that played a key factor
in the growth of Hachioji's silk industry.
It's in a hilly area on the south side of the city.
We arrive at the foot of a narrow slope.
Where are we right now?
This road here was used to transport raw silk from Hachioji to Yokohama.
In 1854, Japan emerged from a period of self-imposed isolation.
It opened its doors to trade.
Raw silk became the country's most popular export.
After Japan reopened,
Yokohama became a major port for international trade.
Raw silk was transported via this road,
which was the most direct route between Hachioji and the port city.
Later it came to be called the "Silk Road."
This area in particular had become home to many raw silk merchants.
And as exports grew,
the city became a hub for silk produced across the region.
Thanks to this Silk Road, the city grew and prospered.
So this is the Silk Road.
Only part of the old road remains.
This section was a stony mountain pass.
They would load horses up with raw silk and make their way to Yokohama.
On the way back they likely loaded up with items they picked up at Yokohama.
They probably brought back souvenirs and various products.
The road was also used by Western merchants
on their way to Hachioji to negotiate business deals.
- I see something up ahead!
- Yes.
Look at that!
It's a view of Hachioji.
Wow!
So long ago all of this was mulberry orchards.
Yes, this whole area.
In 1877, a large-scale silk mill was established in Hachioji.
For a time, it boasted the highest production volume in Japan.
Mikamo takes us to see what remains of the old facilities.
I wasn't expecting this!
Hello. I'm Saskia.
We're greeted by company Director, Matsumoto Akira.
80 years ago, the old silk mill was turned into a fire engine factory.
You build fire engines here?
That's so cool!
This place was originally a silk mill that was owned by our parent company.
On the grounds there remain vestiges of a bygone era of prosperity.
This was part of the mill.
We believe this cave served as the mulberry storehouse.
The entrance is marked by a brick archway.
The cave provided a consistently cool environment,
and is thought to have been used to store mulberry leaves.
This was one of the sericulture buildings,
where silkworms were raised and cocoons were processed into raw silk.
Meanwhile, the old auditorium,
once used for morning assemblies and recreation,
has been turned into a warehouse.
Its size speaks to the large workforce employed by the silk mill.
Matsumoto says they've also kept one of the silk mill's vital resources.
He takes us out to the mountainside behind the factory.
Ah, water!
There's a spring back there.
There?
A silk mill needs clean water.
It's a fundamental resource you need for making silk and textiles.
They also needed water to run steam engines.
Right. It's absolutely vital.
Yes.
The spring water is now being used to run pump tests on fire engines.
So traces of Hachioji's silk heritage can still be found around the city.
Yes. In many ways that heritage connects to the present.
I'm glad we got to show you that today.
In the second half of the 20th century,
Hachioji's sericulture industry went into a decline.
This is the last remaining silkworm farm in Tokyo.
Hello! I'm Saskia.
We're the Osadas.
- Thank you for your time!
- Our pleasure.
This is Osada Seiichi and his wife Akira.
He comes from a local farming family that has been practicing sericulture
in this area for five generations.
It involves taking care of silkworms
and processing their cocoons into raw silk.
The couple rears silkworms twice a year,
starting with newly hatched larvae.
In a year, they raise about 75,000 of them.
Osada takes us up to the room where the silkworms spin their cocoons.
This is where our silkworms spin their cocoons.
They do that in these racks.
Ah, they go inside the spaces.
Well, we give them some encouragement.
Of course. You guide them.
We scatter the silkworms from above.
They have a habit of climbing, so they make their way up.
Along the way they'll find a cubicle that suits them.
Once they find a cozy spot and settle,
they start spinning their cocoon.
It's said that the average silkworm
wraps itself up in a strand of silk 1,500 meters long.
The spinning process takes about a week.
Akira will show us how they extract silk from the cocoons.
It's hard to extract the silk as is.
So we boil the cocoons for about 15 minutes.
Now the filament has been released.
Can you see it?
Wow. It's so thin!
Yes, a single filament is very thin.
Here, the silk filaments of about 20 cocoons
are being wound together to create a thread.
She uses a traditional Japanese silk reel.
Now it's Saskia's turn to give it a go.
What do you think?
I like it.
Go ahead and give it a feel.
Look at that luster.
It's quite firm. I thought it would be softer.
It's beautiful.
Some people are turned off by silkworms.
Yes.
But for silkworm farmers, they are our livelihood.
So we respectfully call them "o-kaiko-sama."
Or simply "o-kaiko."
I see.
The Osadas are committed to keeping Hachioji's traditional sericulture alive.
Lastly, we return to central Hachioji.
There's an area here that flourished during the city's silk farming heyday.
Look, it's so beautiful, these black walls.
This district is known as Kurobei dori,
"Black Wall Street."
It's a traditional entertainment district,
lined with high-end restaurants and teahouses,
as well as geisha offices.
We visit one of the offices, known in Japanese as "okiya."
Welcome. Please come in.
This way.
Please enter.
Pardon me. Thank you for your time.
Hello.
I'm Saskia.
Welcome!
You're beautiful!
This is Megumi, the owner of this geisha office.
She's been a traditional entertainer for 40 years.
She was originally recruited by the proprietress of another okiya.
I knew nothing about this world.
But being able to wear kimono sounded nice, so I joined.
This geisha district had close ties to the local textile industry.
Almost every night, businesspeople would gather here
to broker deals and entertain clients.
During its peak in the mid-20th century,
it was home to 45 restaurants and over 200 geisha.
But as the textile industry entered a decline in the '60s,
the district had to downsize.
Today a total of 12 geisha entertainers are based in Hachioji.
It's Megumi's job to train them in song, dance, and music.
Currently, her office manages five geisha.
May I ask why you became geisha?
I was on social media, doing research.
There was video of our house mother and sisters talking.
The warm, joyous atmosphere drew me in.
For me it was YouTube.
I was watching videos of geisha dances.
The dances of my Hachioji sisters looked really fun.
It's wonderful to see this culture living on,
and these young women stepping into this world.
Thank you.
I hope more young people join.
We will preserve the good things while also adapting to the times.
We're still figuring out what the future looks like.
But I hope to hand down this tradition.
The local geisha community is looking toward the future.
Last year, they opened a beauty salon
specializing in traditional hairdressing.
There are fewer and fewer stylists who know how to do geisha hair.
In order to keep the techniques alive,
Megumi asked a veteran hairdresser to help teach the next generation.
A space for events also opened up here last year.
The geisha world is thought of as mysterious and exclusive.
But they hope to make their performances more accessible to the general public.
My hope is to make geisha culture part of Hachioji's charm.
To that end, having an event venue will make a big difference.
It's really helped me envision a brighter future.
So we will continue our efforts.
I knew that Hachioji has a very rich silk culture and kimono textile culture,
and that its industry was booming before the war.
But I was really, really surprised to see that, even now in the city,
you can still find remnants of that culture.
It was lovely to meet all these people that try to revive this industry
and bring it back into the future.
And I really hope that people will come to Hachioji
and discover the friendliness and the rich history
that the city has to offer.