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Sericulture, or silk farming, is the rearing of silkworms for the production of silk. Although there are several commercial species of silkworms, ''Bombyx mori'' is the most widely used and intensively studied silkworm. Silk was first produced in China as early as the Neolithic period. Sericulture has become an important cottage industries in countries such as Brazil, China, France, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, and Russia. Today, China and India are the two main producers, with more than 60% of the world's annual production. == History == According to Confucian texts, the discovery of silk production dates to about 2700 BC, although archaeological records point to silk cultivation as early as the Yangshao period (5000 – 3000 BC). By about the first half of the 1st century AD it had reached ancient Khotan,〔( Hill, John E. 2003. "Annotated Translation of the Chapter on the Western Regions according to the ''Hou Hanshu''." 2nd Draft Edition. Appendix A. )〕 and by AD 140 the practice had been established in India. In the 6th century the smuggling of silkworm eggs into the Byzantine Empire led to its establishment in the Mediterranean, remaining a monopoly in the Byzantine Empire for centuries (Byzantine silk). In 1147, during the Second Crusade, Roger II of Sicily (1095–1154) attacked Corinth and Thebes, two important centres of Byzantine silk production, capturing the weavers and their equipment and establishing his own silkworks in Palermo and Calabria,〔Muthesius, "Silk in the Medieval World", p. 331.〕 eventually spreading the industry to Western Europe. File:Women placing silkworms on trays together with mulberry leaves (Sericulture by Liang Kai, 1200s).jpg |The silkworms and mulberry leaves are placed on trays. File:Men preparing twig frames where silkworms will spin cocoons (Sericulture by Liang Kai, 1200s).jpg|Twig frames for the silkworms are prepared. File:Weighing and sorting the cocoons (Sericulture by Liang Kai, 1200s).jpg|The cocoons are weighed. File:Soaking the cocoons and reeling the silk (Sericulture by Liang Kai, 1200s).jpg|The cocoons are soaked and the silk is wound on spools. File:Weaving the silk (Sericulture by Liang Kai, 1200s).jpg|The silk is woven using a loom. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sericulture」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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