Imported Silk Reeling Machine at Tsukiji in Tokyo

Utagawa Yoshitora

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Casper Müller, a Swiss expert based in Yokohama, was employed by the prestigious and financially successful Ono Silk Filature Company to build a modern silk reeling factory in Tokyo. Yoshitora’s complex triptych serves as a precious record of its activities. The young female workers first empty baskets of cocoons into vats of steaming water, and then locate the thread ends from several cocoons in order to reel them onto a spinning frame.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art