Raising Silkworms, shot in 8mm, was made when the Ogawa Productions group was invited to settle in Magino, a village in the mountainous region of Yamagata in northern Japan. They moved into a barn lent by a farmer-poet which they converted into a home and film studio. Their first film there was made under the direction of Shiraishi Yoko, Ogawa Shinsuke’s wife, and draws us into the world of raising silkworms under guidance of Sato Kimura, a woman who has spent half her life with the silkworms.
EN
“The film was originally meant to be a loose collection of visual notes on 8mm, a moving image supplement to their elaborate scrapbooks. Along the way, they could train members to operate the camera and learn other aspects of film production. However, Ogawa thought the footage was good enough to convert into a documentary. They edited the footage together, blew it up to 16mm, and it eventually became what they refer to as the Magino Village Story’s Silkworm Chapter, or Yosan-hen. Silkworms entered the village economy in Magino as late as the 1950s; however, the filmmakers mostly ignore the economic materiality of silkworm farming for process. Silkworm farming was primarily women’s work. The men would only occasionally lend a hand, which is why their film prominently features Ogawa’s wife, Shiraishi Yoko, as she learns the ins and outs of silkworms from neighbor Hatsu Kimura. The film describes every step of the process.”
Markus Nornes1
“The film opens with an old woman recounting a folk tale concerning silkworms (she calls them "honorable worms"), in which the Magino silkworms are seen as the reincarnation of a vanished princess, and as messengers of the gods. In the folk tale it is said that the pattern on the bodies of the silkworms is the same as the hoof print of the horse that protected the princess. This introduction draws us into the world of raising silkworms. Ogawa and his staff spin out a film from the process of actually raising silkworms themselves, under the direction of Sato Kimura, a woman who has spent half her life with the silkworms. The film shows us in exquisite detail the process involved: from the birth of the silkworms in the spring, through the selection of mulberry leaves for their food and the repeated shedding of their skins as they grow, to the cocoons that they make in time for the autumn. Along with Ogawa and his staff, we come to share the same sense of "time" as Sato, who has spent many years with the silkworms. This time spent with Sato, in particular, formed the basis of the opened attitude that Ogawa demonstrated in his later films after moving to Magino and working as both filmmaker and farmer.”
Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival2
- 1Markus Normes, “The Magino Village Story — Raising Silkworms,” Courtisane 2025 Catalog.
- 2Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Catalog 2001.
