Kiryu Shinmachi Preservation District for Groups of Important Traditional Buildings

  • Gunma
  • Sightseeing
Photo courtesy of Gugutto Gunma Photo Gallery
The name "Orito" (textile capital) is derived from the fact that Kiryu is a comprehensive textile production center with a concentration of establishments that possess many textile-related technologies, including yarn manufacturing, dyeing and weaving, and embroidery. The foundation of Kiryu textiles was laid in 1833 with the opening of the Kiryu Silk Market, and it flourished as a key industry in Japan until the beginning of the Showa period (1926-1989), centering on high-end textiles, to the extent that it was called "Nishijin in the west, Kiryu in the east. Incidentally, Kiryu is so well known as an asset to the people of Gunma Prefecture that it is referred to in the Kamige karuta (Japanese playing cards) as "Kiryu is the place of machines in Japan.

Liquor stores, earthen storehouses, and sawtooth-roof buildings line the street.

The Kiryu Shinmachi Preservation District for Traditional Buildings developed as a zaimachi (township) under the orders of Tokugawa Ieyasu in Tensho 19 (1591). As a form of town that developed around the silk weaving industry, which is a representative industry of modern Kiryu, various buildings related to the silk weaving industry, such as liquor stores, earthen storehouses, and sawtooth-roof factories built from the late Edo period to the early Showa period, are integrated together to convey today the unique historical environment as a weaving town.
Photo courtesy of Gugutto Gunma Photo Gallery
Photo courtesy of Gugutto Gunma Photo Gallery

Why not stop by the Kiryu Textile Memorial Museum?

Exhibits and sales of Kiryu textiles, the foundation of the development of the town of Kiryu, are available. Photo courtesy of Gugutto Gunma Photo Gallery
Welcome to Gunma. Gugutto Gunma Official Website
Tags related to this article
Previous post Back to list Next