familiar with made of timber-framed brick buildings. Brunat returned to France on to purchase equipment and hire engineers. In the interim, Odaka Atsutada was placed in charge of the Japanese side and started procuring materials, and in March 1871, construction started. Brick was not yet in common use, so a brick kiln had to be constructed in what is now Kanra, Gunma where clay of the appropriate quality had been found. The Tomioka Silk Mill started operations on November 4, 1872. However, due to the shortage of female workers, about 210 female workers initially operated with half of the total reeling machine. The Westerners on site was seen drinking red wine; after that, unfounded rumors spread that they lived off of blood drained from the Japanese workers, which scared off many potential workers. Odaka was then forced to hire his own daughter to help dispel these rumors. As of January of the following year, there were 404 workers, mainly daughters of former samurai. The number of workers in April 1872 had increased to 556. The life of the workers has been recorded in the diary of one, Wada Ei. As a government factory The Tomioka Silk Mill is a huge timber-framed brick building, containing 300 reels. The largest plants in France and Italy had up to 150 reels, so the Tomioka Mill was one of the largest in the world at the time of its completion. The reels also incorporated a rewinding process called re-rolling, where the raw silk was re-wound from a small frame into a larger frame. This was done as Brunat wanted to mechanically imitate the processes which Japanese craftsmen had formerly done by hand. In the case of the humid Japanese climate, once the raw silk was wound, sericin could cause the silk threads to stick together. The rewinding process, which was not necessary in the drier European climates, prevented this. Another point which Brunat took into account when special-ordering the reeling equipment in Europe was the smaller stature of the Japanese women who operated the machines. The working environment at the Tomioka Silk Mill was progressive for its time. Brunat introduced eight-hour working days, Sunday holidays and ten-day holidays mid-year and at year-end. The workers were provided with uniforms, and as the prefectural governor, Katori Motohiko was enthusiastic on education, the women workers had access to an elementary school. However, worker turnover was high, as