For most of the history of the pearl, natural pearls
were relied upon for their collection. This was
a risky, expensive, and difficult process that produced
very few results. Pearls were extremely rare, and
extremely valuable. It wasn’t until the Japanese
discovered how to nucleate mollusks to produce cultured
pearls, that pearls became available to people other
than the very wealthy.
Kokichi Mikimoto, the son of a noodle maker,
worked with his dedicated wife Ume to develop
a strategy that enticed oysters to produce pearls
on demand. It was this discovery that brought
about the beginning of oyster farming and cultured
pearls. Of course, they didn’t know that
government biologist Tokichi Nishikawa, and carpenter
Tatsuhei Mise had also each discovered the cause
of pearl formation.
With all of these discoveries, and Mise’s
patent in 1907 for a grafting needle, cultured
pearls became quite an important and competitive
science. They didn’t even know about each
other’s efforts until Nishikawa applied
for a nucleating patent and found out that Mise
had discovered the exact same thing. They united
for their common goal, creating the Mise-Nishikawa
method, which is still the essence of cultured
pearls today. Mikimoto took this a step further
by altering the Mise-Nishikawa method, with his
own, and creating a technique to culture round
pearls. This patent was granted in 1916. From
there, Mikimoto took off, shadowing the works
of the others.
It was from here that specific types of cultured
pearls were able to appear.
For example, Mikimoto’s efforts were directly
responsible for the development of the Akoya pearl.
South Sea pearls on the other hand, are those
cultivated in the waters off the coasts of Australia,
the Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar, Japan, and
Thailand. They had been cultivated naturally for
thousands of years, when the Australian people
believed that pearls held supernatural powers,
and used them specifically for activities such
as dream interpretation. In the 16th and 17th
centuries when the European explorers arrived,
they brought the global demand for South Sea pearls.
By the 18th and 19th centuries, the South Sea
pearl producing oysters were brought to the brink
of extinction. Culturing pearls saved these oysters,
and brought South Sea pearls to the level of 10%
of the entire pearl market.
Tahitian pearls were originally believed to be
of the god Oro who used rainbows to visit earth.
This was what the Tahitians believed gave the
pearls their unique coloring. When the French
arrived, the pearls were cultivated not from Tahiti
precisely, but everywhere else throughout the
French Polynesian waters. By the 1700s, there
were so many traders and explorers that the pearl-producing
mollusks quickly became depleted. By 1880, France
was forced to take strict action, placing severe
regulations on the fishing off these islands.
It wasn’t until the Japanese began the process
of nucleation that Tahitian pearls could once
again be enjoyed.
If one thing is for certain, pearls will be a
beauty prized by people of all places and levels,
for the rest of time.
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