PEARL CORNER
A MAGICAL GLIMPSE INTO THE HISTORY OF THE CULTURED PEARL
Pearl Corner: A Magical Glimpse into
the History of the Cultured Pearl
Whether it’s pearl rings, classic pearl strings, or pearl drop earrings every jewellery retailer needs to sell pearls.
But have you ever stopped to think about how pearl cultivation began?
Mikimoto - Pearl Pioneer
Although Mikimoto was not the first to produce a
round cultured pearl - interestingly yet not surprisingly
- he is still considered to be the “Pearl King”, (a phrase
coined by a newspaper reporter in the 1920s).
Mikimoto was a resilient man with an incredible
vision. He knew that the warm waters along the
July 2017 | jewelleryfocus.co.uk
southern coast of Japan were the ideal conditions for
pearl farming. He first began farming akoya pearls
along the 1000 km coastline of the Mie Prefecture and
akoya cultured pearl farms still thrive there today.
In 1926 the term “cultured pearl “was first born when
the First International Jewellers’ Congress adopted the
term. The term stuck.
By 1938, Mikimoto had grown his enterprise to 360
pearl farms in Japan, reaching a production peak of
nearly 11,000,000 pearls (Pearls as One, 2016).
Mikimoto remained devoted to the development
of the cultured pearl industry until his death in 1954.
It was his dedication and the techniques of Mise and
Nishikawa that we owe the success of the cultured pearl
industry today.
Mikimotos’ dream was to “adorn the necks of
all women around the world with pearls”. And he
succeeded in adorning the necks of some of the most
beautiful and famous women in the world. In 1954,
Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio travelled to Japan
for their honeymoon, where Joe DiMaggio presented
Marilyn with a Mikimoto pearl necklace.
Mikimoto would be a very proud man today.
‘‘
Mikimoto’s
love and
passion
for pearls
drove his
commercial
spirit and in
1899 he opened
his first shop
in the Ginza
area of Tokyo
selling these
mabe pearls
‘‘
F
reshwater pearl cultivation dates back as far as
the thirteenth century in China, where Mabe
pearls in the shape of Buddha were produced.
Foreign objects were inserted between the outer skin
layer (mantle) and the shell of the mollusc would coat it
with nacre thus creating a blister pearl.
Kokichi Mikimoto, the son of a noodle shop owner in
Japan, first inspired by an exhibition of pearls in Japan
in 1878 began to experiment with ways to produce
pearls. He adapted the method from China to culture
blister pearls in large quantities in the 1890s using the
Pinctada fucata oyster and in 1896 he was the first
person to be granted a patent.
Mikimoto’s love and passion for pearls drove his
commercial spirit and in 1899 he opened his first shop
in the Ginza area of Tokyo selling these mabe pearls.
However the demand for blister pearls was not enough
to sustain the industry. Mikimoto was determined that
his journey with pearls wasn’t over and he searched for
the answer to the most important question of all; how
do I culture pearls?
Finally, in 1905 after years of experimenting - he
did just that and succeeded to grow a whole pearl.
However, while Mikimoto was profiting from his
Mabe pearls he didn’t pay much attention to two
bright Japanese wannabes doing the same thing. A
humble Japanese carpenter, named Tatsuhei Mise and
a Japanese researcher, Tokichi Nishikawa had beaten
Mikimoto to it.
They both developed the same cultivation method
and Mise and Nishikawa discovered that to produce
a round pearl three key elements were needed - the
nucleus needed to be inserted within the body of the
oyster together with a piece of nacre secreting mantle
tissue. This piece of nacre secreting tissue ensures the
formation of a pearl sac around the nucleus so that
the nacre will be deposited. In 1907 they both realised
their dream and were awarded their licenses from the
Japanese government.
Since the early days of pearl cultivation and the huge
rise in global pearl production in China in the 1960s,
Australia and South East Asia, pearls no longer remain
the gem of the rich and famous .
Today, however, as new techniques emerge and China
takes over survival for the next generation Japanese
akoya pearl farmer means the need to be even more
innovative and technically savvy if they are to compete
with an ever growing competitive market.
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