How the first perfectly shaped pearl came to be: Kokichi Mikimoto and his great Japanese dream

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

"I will shower all the women in the world with pearls!" - he said, but he devoted all his works to only one, the one whom he lost so early. He went from a noodle merchant to a "pearl king", was a scientist, businessman, jeweler, he harnessed chance and made miracles controllable. Kokichi Mikimoto is the father of cultured pearls, which are not inferior or even superior to "natural" ones.

Kokichi Mikimoto was born in 1858 into a poor family. He grew up on the coast and from childhood was fascinated by the secrets of the origin of pearls. It was in those regions that pearl oysters were found, hiding pearls of incredible beauty in their womb - but the huge scale of oyster mining put this species on the brink of destruction. In his youth, the future "father of pearls" had to quit school to help his father - he sold noodles in the Avako tavern. And Kokichi himself was in for a dizzying career as a seller of noodles or vegetables.

But Mikimoto was lucky to get married - at the age of seventeen he married a girl from a wealthy family. At first he did not think to give up his usual life, he traded in a shop, but things were going badly. After consulting with his wife, he decided to start a new business. Her dowry allowed Mikimoto to acquire an oyster farm. And even then he thought about how to make the process of creating pearls more efficient and controllable. Today artificial pearls seem to be something for granted, but in the second half of the 19th century, it was believed that perfectly round pearls could not be created in an “unnatural” way. Many scientists and farmers have struggled with this problem - to no avail. In China, artificial river pearls have been grown, but not of high quality. The pearls came out … whatever - just not perfectly round. But this particular pearl was especially valuable!

At the age of thirty, Mikimoto embarked on his own experiments, choosing two convenient locations - Shimmei Bay in Ago Bay and Ojima Island. In those years, at the oyster fair, he met a biologist who gave him some valuable advice on pearl cultivation. Kokichi has used millions of grains of sand in various shapes, sizes, and compositions to make the fastidious oysters grow the right pearls. The oysters disagreed. Observations have shown that they stubbornly reject foreign bodies. During the red tide (an amazing but dangerous natural phenomenon - the accumulation of algae) many Mikimoto's oysters died … And he had to start from scratch.

But finally, in 1893, Kokichi Mikimoto's efforts bore fruit. He received semicircular artificial pearls. It took three whole years to obtain a patent - the fact is that Mikimoto was the first Japanese to own a "biological invention". The Mikimoto Pearl Farm provided a stable income and job creation in the region. But he was not going to stop there. The pursuit of the perfect pearl continued, perfection unattainable. In 1897, Kokichi's wife, who faithfully accompanied him on this difficult path, fell seriously ill. The doctors were powerless to help her. At the bedside of the dying Mikimoto, he vowed to create the most beautiful pearl in the world in her memory …

As soon as he recovered from the loss of his beloved, a new tragedy befell him. In 1905, another red tide nullified all the works of Kokichi. But he couldn't give up. From somewhere, invisibly, a woman was watching him, whom he dreamed of sprinkling pearls from head to toe - which means that he had no right to give up his dream. And in 1908, one of the oysters presented him with a long-awaited gift - a luxurious pearl of a pale pink hue. The technology of its cultivation was incredibly complex, but now it could be repeated. Mikimoto's pearls were not inferior to the rarest natural pearls for which India and Ceylon were famous, and the very pearls that divers in his native Japan risked their lives. True, only five percent of the pearls were of high quality, which means that it was necessary to expand production.

Mikimoto Pearl Farm has transformed the land where he spent his childhood. Where he once ran barefoot along the coast, where he sold homemade noodles and rotting vegetables, something beautiful was now being created. Numerous buildings, workshops, sorting rooms and shops, like mushrooms after rain, appeared on the island. Infrastructure changed, Mikimoto contributed to the emergence of new highways and railways, oversaw the planting of gardens and the construction of new buildings. Restaurants and water shows have also been opened there. The island has now received a new name - Tatokujima, the Island of Great Benefit. Now the red tides posed no danger to oysters - Mikimoto invented a special basket that protects delicate sea creatures from terrible algae. Today the use of such baskets is ubiquitous in oyster farms.

But resting on our laurels was not in the nature of Kokichi Mikimoto! Soon he began to think about how to find a use for his pearls. He began to collect from them, as from a constructor, type-setting ornaments and trinkets - Buddha statues and temples, birds and butterflies. This is how Mikimoto went from an oyster farm to a jewelry brand. And the best-selling one in the world! The brand's earrings with white pearls encrusted with diamonds are adored by Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain. The technology of "embedding" a diamond into a pearl was also innovative.

Today Mikimoto is a real pearl empire, where science and art are closely intertwined with each other, and the brand's boutiques are scattered around the world. Kokichi Mikimoto himself lived for almost a hundred years - and until his last breath he did not leave work. At home, a monument was erected to him - a bronze statue facing the sea. Since 1951, the Mikimoto Museum has been opened in the city of Toba, where both monarchs and ordinary tourists love to visit. It houses Mikimoto's masterpieces of jewelery, archival photographs, videos and the farm's finest gems.