Former Showa Kogyo Silk Mill

A Silk-Reeling Shed Saved in Matsumoto

The Former Showa Kogyo Silk Mill (旧昭和興業製糸場) is the reeling shed of a silk mill of around 1925 in the Matsumoto City Rekishi no Sato museum, Shimadachi, Matsumoto City, Nagano Prefecture, and was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (structure) on September 10, 2019 (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

The Agency records a single-storey timber building roofed in metal sheet, with a building area of 175 square metres, moved to its present site in 1996; registration number 20-540.

A Reeling Shed Moved and Preserved

The Former Showa Kogyo Silk Mill is the reeling shed of a silk mill, moved to and preserved at the Matsumoto City Rekishi no Sato museum (Agency for Cultural Affairs). It is a single-storey timber building facing north under a gabled metal roof; from the east it holds the re-reeling room and the reeling room, with the cocoon-boiling room in a wing projecting at the west end of the front.

Rows of glass windows run high along the front and back walls, and a raised ventilating roof runs the whole length of the ridge (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Why It Was Registered

The Agency registered it as a model of design, a building that preserves the type of mill that dominated modern silk reeling.

What to Look For

Look for the continuous high windows and the raised ventilating roof along the whole ridge (Agency for Cultural Affairs).

Visiting

According to the Matsumoto City Museum, Rekishi no Sato preserves and opens five relocated historic buildings on the theme of modern Shinshu. It opens from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (last entry 4:30 p.m.), admission is free, and it closes on Tuesdays (the following day if Tuesday is a public holiday) and from December 29 to January 3.