Tajima Yahei Sericulture Farm, Historic farmhouse and sericulture site in Sakai Shimamura, Isesaki, Japan
Tajima Yahei Sericulture Farm is a two-storey minka farmhouse in Sakai Shimamura, Isesaki, Gunma, whose main house was completed in 1863. Its tile roof carries a full-length raised ridge vent called a yagura, the first such roof on a silkworm farm, with fixed openings along the ridge that draw air through the upper-floor silkworm rooms. The photograph shows the long timber building behind a gravel forecourt, with a row of dark-framed windows and one red panel on the upper floor.
The farmhouse dates to 1863 and belongs to a group of properties in the area that developed new methods for raising silkworms during the late Edo period. The ventilation techniques tested here were later adopted more widely across Japan as silk production grew during the Meiji era.
The layout of the house shows how living and working spaces were combined under one roof, so the family could raise silkworms without leaving home. This arrangement was common across the region and gives visitors a clear sense of how sericulture shaped daily life for generations.
The grounds and exterior of the property are open to visitors, and a nearby information center offers displays about silk production. Walking around the site on foot is the best way to take in the different buildings at your own pace.
A storage building from 1896, used to keep mulberry leaves before they were fed to the silkworms, still stands on the property. It is one of the few surviving examples of this type of outbuilding and gives visitors a direct connection to the everyday work behind silk production.
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