Ten years after being registered on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage list, the Tomioka Silk Mill in Tomioka, Gunma Prefecture, is facing a decline in visitors and a decrease in revenue from admissions. The lack of funds has resulted in no prospects for repairing two out of three buildings that are designated as national treasures.
The Tomioka Silk Mill, which was Japan’s first full-scale silk mill and a symbol of the country’s modernization, is now suffering from deteriorating buildings that have been standing since its opening in 1872.
Built by the government to produce high-quality raw silk for export, the mill occupies a site of about 55,000 square meters with over 100 buildings of various sizes.
Currently owned and managed by the Tomioka city government, the mill was added to the World Cultural Heritage list in 2014 along with three other facilities in Gunma Prefecture.
A guide at the mill expressed his concern about declining visitor numbers: “For a while after it became a World Heritage site, I was giving guided tours three times a day. Now I’m only active about three times a month due to fewer groups visiting.”
Before its World Heritage registration, the mill used to attract 200,000 to 300,000 visitors annually. However, this number sharply increased to approximately 1.337 million in fiscal year 2014 when it joined the list. Since then, there has been a continuous decline with visitor numbers dropping as low as 170,000 during fiscal year 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although visitor numbers had recovered slightly by reaching around 360,000 by fiscal year 2023; this is still not enough. To cover conservation and maintenance costs and contract with a facility management company requires approximately ¥100 million per year which would necessitate attracting at least half-a-million visitors annually.
The Tomioka city government relies mainly on admission fees for funding preservation and maintenance efforts for which they have established an account balance that decreased from ¥990 million at fiscal year-end of 2016 down to approximately ¥50 million at fiscal year-end of2021.
When concerns arose regarding collapsing chimneys within one building reaching up to37.5 meters high; crowdfunding raised ¥80 million needed for repairs.
However,the repair plans are behind schedule as only one out of three national treasure-designated buildings—the West Cocoon Warehouse—has been repaired and opened to public access so far.Work on repairing both East Cocoon Warehouseandthe Silk-Reeling Plant has yetto commence.
Repairingthe West Cocoon Warehouse alone cost around¥3.5 billion including addinga multipurpose hall suitablefor concerts.
A senior city official stated,”From abudgetary standpoint,it would be difficultto perform similar repairs onthe other two buildings.” Nonetheless,some visitors express their desireto see themachinery usedfor automatic silk reelingin operation.
Tomioka Mayor Yoshinori Enomoto said,”We will develop measures tobri ngina steady streamofvisitors.” This means thatthecitygovernmentwill make effortsattracting educational travel such asschool tripsand hands-on learning experiences,hopingthat participants will returnas repeat visitorsinthe future.
Keiichi Murata,a visiting professoratMaebashi InstituteofTechnologywho contributedto formulatingthep lanforusingandmaintainingthesilkmill,suggested,”Some people want more detailed information,such astheengravingsonbricksatthemill.The mills houldemphasizeitsfunctionasamuseumbyholdinglecturesandseminarsregularly.”
