Procopius, a sixth-century historian, describes how her secret became known. sericulture To Byzantines. He claims that some monks who traveled through India appeared before the emperor and explained to him that “silk makers are like worms, and the master has a nature that makes them work constantly.” According to tradition, the emperor listened to what they told him and ordered large gifts for them to make their words come true. And here’s how it happened.

Early next month it will open in Souffli, at Silk Museumperiodical exhibition “Like Silk”, created in collaboration between PIOP (Cultural Foundation Piraeus Group) and Museum of Asian Art Corfu. Three sections of the exhibition – “Sericulture in Japan”, “Exquisite Fabrics” and “Geisha World” – are housed in a special exhibition hall on the first floor of his Souflio mansion. Konstantinou Kurtidis.

The periodical exhibition “Like Silk” is the result of a collaboration between PIOP (Piraeus Group Cultural Foundation) and the Asian Art Museum of Corfu.

Soufli is closely intertwined with the history of silk in Greece. Constructed by folk craftsmen from traditional materials (wood, stone, brick, etc.), hooded houses have defined its architecture. In these houses, people seasonally lived with silkworms and devoted themselves to growing them. Merchants and, as a rule, wealthy families had bicyclics, that is, large houses with hoods, to meet the needs of large-scale sericulture.

This hooded house houses the PIOP Silk Museum and unfolds the history of silk and Soufflé as a city where the silk industry flourished until the mid-20th century. And here, with scientific documentation by Despina Zerniotis, director of the Museum of Asian Art in Corfu, some 70 works from the treasures of his Japanese collection will be placed.

Process steps

The first section of the exhibition focuses on sericulture in Japan and focuses on a series of artistic illustrations by Kitigawa Utamaro (1753–1806). These are twelve colored woodblock prints by a well-known Japanese artist, collectively titled “Female Sericulture”, representing all stages of the process, from collecting mulberry leaves and incubating silkworm eggs to weaving silk on a loom. . Thus, it presents the stages of the production phase, which traditionally belonged to predominantly female labor and constituted one of the most important branches of the economy of Edo (Tokyo). A visitor to the Silk Museum can get detailed information about these stages in Greece by visiting the permanent exhibition.

“We needed a ‘conversation’ between women sericulture in Japan in the 19th century. and Soufliotissa from the same period, who demonstrate their mastery of silk processing, “jumping” from photographic documents, audiovisual works and works of the permanent collection of the Silk Museum,” says the director of PIOP, Alexandra Rapti.

However, among the sections of the periodical exhibition, there could not have been a section devoted to the charming world of a geisha, since a silk kimono with gold embroidery occupied a prominent place in her life and long training. “Following the logic of parallel exhibition narratives – a periodical and permanent exhibition – the visitor comes into contact with aspects of the history, production and use of silk in Japan, discovering the elements that link Greek and Japanese cultures,” comments Mr. Rapti.