Imperial Sericulture of Her Majesty the Empress

Her Majesty the Empress has inherited from Empress Kojun, the Empress of Emperor Showa, the tradition of raising silkworms started by Empress Dowager Shoken, the Empress of Emperor Meiji, in 1871. Every year in the spring or early summer, Her Majesty takes time out of Her official duties many times to go to the Momijiyama Imperial Cocoonery or the Mulberry Grove in the Imperial Palace Grounds to participate in nearly all aspects of the silkworm raising process. This video shows Her Majesty's sericulture, together with how the silk thread from a purely domestic silkworm, the koishimaru, now only cultivated at the Imperial Cocoonery, was used to restore the ancient textiles from the 8th century kept in the Shosoin Repository, and the history of sericulture in modern Japan.