In 1870, Paul Brunat, who worked in a French trading company in Yokohama, researched suitable locations for a silk mill in the Kanto region and selected the site in Tomioka City from among the candidates.
Gunma Prefecture | Takasaki, Gunma | Ueno, Gunma | Tomioka, Gunma | Tomioka | Miyagi, Gunma | Kawaba, Gunma | Ikaho, Gunma | Gunma prefecture | Annaka, Gunma | '''above:''' cherry tree; '''below:''' ''Phlox subulata'' in an ornamental planting at Yachounomori Garden in Tatebayashi, Gunma |
In 1897, a railroad was constructed for the transport of coal between northern mines and Tomioka Bay now Reihoku, Kumamoto by Dainippon Rentan Company.
Major cities and villages it passes through include: Kashiwa, Toride, Tsuchiura, Ishioka, Mito, Hitachi, Iwaki, Tomioka, Ōkuma, Sōma, Watari, Iwanuma
Since the characters for Kōzuke are more commonly read "Ueno," Gunma Prefecture's Japan Rail stations do not use it as a name prefix, using "Gunma" instead.
In his later years, Tomioka assisted in editing a Japanese history of the Pacific War and, in 1951, he served on a 12-man commission to assist the Japanese government in the establishment of the present day Japan Self-Defense Forces.
A 13-episode anime adaptation produced by A-1 Pictures and directed by Yasutaka Yamamoto began airing on ABC on July 4, 2013 and were later aired on Tokyo MX, Tochigi TV, Gunma TV, Hokkaido Broadcasting Company, Chukyo TV, BS11 and AT-X.
It has a friendship agreement with Auckland, New Zealand, and a New Zealand teacher was sent to Tomioka each year to teach at the Junior and Elementary schools.
Eijiro Tono, a well-known actor starring as Mito Kōmon in a show of the same name, was from Tomioka.