Paper short abstract:

This presentation will scrutinize the popular image of female workers in the early Meiji period. The examination of records of the Tomioka Silk Mill sheds light on the experiences of these young women and on the role of networks in their lives.

Paper long abstract:

Discussions of Japan's silk industry, which played a leading role in Japan's rapid modernization, often call to mind popular representations of "pitiful" female factory workers as seen in the novel Ā Nomugi tōge (Nomugi Pass). This presentation will scrutinize the popular image of "female workers in training" (denshū kōjo) in the early Meiji period. The details of their day-to-day lives remain largely unknown. However, an examination of Tomioka Seishijō shi (Records of the Tomioka Silk Mill), with a particular focus on Tomioka nikki (Tomioka Diary, 1905)—the memoir of factory girl Wada Ei (1856-1929)—and on the letters of another factory girl, Kasuga Chō (b. 1858), sheds light on the experiences of these young women and on the role of networks in their lives.

Wada Ei and Kasuga Chō, both born in the Edo period, belonged to a group of sixteen young women who arrived at the Tomioka Silk Mill in April 1873 from Matsushiro, Nagano prefecture. The accounts by Ei, the daughter of a domain retainer, and Chō, born into a commoner household, offer insights into the changes that status society was experiencing, the new modes of employment that had materialized for women, and the ways in which young women from different regions in Japan lived their daily lives in the factory.

We learn about group solidarity, which in turn relied on the strength of local networks. The bonds between Matsushiro women helped ease their fears at the time of recruitment and supported them throughout their time at the Tomioka Silk Mill, where they encouraged and pushed each other to acquire the skills of silk reeling.