Empress Harvests Silk Cocoons at Imperial Palace

Jul 11, 2026 | News On Japan

TOKYO - Empress Masako harvested wild silk cocoons at the Imperial Palace on July 9, continuing the long-standing sericulture tradition passed down through generations of empresses since the Meiji era.

The empress visited the Momijiyama Imperial Cocoonery within the palace grounds, where she collected cocoons of the wild silkworm known as "tensan."

The outdoor-reared silkworms hatched from eggs that the empress attached to Japanese paper in May 2026 together with Emperor Naruhito and Princess Aiko. The paper was wrapped around branches of sawtooth oak trees, where the larvae later spun their distinctive bright green cocoons.

As she carefully cut branches bearing the cocoons with pruning shears, the empress asked, "When did these cocoons form?" Looking at their vivid color, she remarked, "They're beautiful, such a lovely green."

Sericulture at the Imperial Palace has been carried on by successive empresses since the Meiji period. This year marks the seventh time Empress Masako has overseen the work, and it is the first time that work involving tensan silkworms has been publicly shown during the Reiwa era.

Source: FNN

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