Welcome. I have been waiting for your visit.

Just to make sure, have you already read the articles for Obon 01 and 02?

Obon-01

Obon-02

 

 

If not, I would be very happy if you started with 01.

There is not very much written about pearls in those articles, but they explain “Obon,” which became the title of this seven-piece earring series.

“Wait, isn’t this supposed to be an Etsy product page?”

That is correct.

If you have some time, I hope you can relax and read it slowly.

I imagine you are busy every day, so perhaps once in a while it might be nice to relax both your mind and body while imagining an ordinary little scene from everyday life in a foreign country.

That said, I should probably explain the pearls first.

Obon 03 is one of the seven pairs of earrings in this Obon series.

 

 

The most distinctive feature of 03 is that, despite being a pair, there is quite a strong difference in color between the two pearls.

“What exactly were you looking at when you made this pair?”

I did look at them properly when I made the pair.

I simply could not find two pearls with matching colors.

However, I decided that the strength of their luster, their shapes, and their overall atmosphere were similar enough that they could somehow work as a pair.

If there had also been a noticeable difference in the strength of their luster, I would not have used them as a pair.

Still, they are honestly right on the borderline of whether they can be considered a proper pair.

Depending on the pearl dealer, someone might very well look at them and say,

 

 

“This? You call this a pair?”

But think about your own friends.

Do you really have many friends whose hobbies, favorite foods, taste in music, and professions are all similar to yours?

Perhaps many of our closest friends are people whose hobbies and opinions are quite different from ours, but somehow we connect either at a much deeper level, or perhaps at a strangely superficial one.

While I was somewhat forcefully trying to make these two pearls into a pair, that thought suddenly came into my mind.

And I decided it might make a useful excuse.

In any case, 9 mm pearls are considered quite large among Akoya pearls.

Their luster is not overwhelmingly strong, but it seems to overflow gently from the surface.

I think they will become earrings with a soft but definite presence.

Now then, I would like to continue talking about Obon.

 

 

In the article for Obon 02, I wrote about memories such as the strange problem of having two Buddhist priests visit our home.

However, perhaps the greatest pleasure of Obon was having relatives gather together.

During Obon, around fifteen relatives from my father’s side of the family would gather at our house.

On another day, we would all visit my mother’s family home, where around fifteen people would gather as well.

In other words, my father’s relatives and my mother’s relatives gathered separately.

When my father’s relatives came together, it was especially fun because I had two cousins who were the same age as me.

There were the three of us brothers, three sisters from another family, and two brothers from another.

Eight children altogether.

Most of the time, we played Famicom together.

 

 

Other than that, we played hide-and-seek inside our rather small house, and at night we would all go outside and play with fireworks.

We were all almost the same age, but even living in slightly different areas meant that different Famicom games were popular.

We often exchanged information about what was popular at school, what games everyone played during recess, and things like that.

I found those conversations endlessly entertaining.

Surprisingly, we almost never complained about our parents to one another.

Also, around forty years ago, there was a general attitude that elementary school children should not drink too many soft drinks.

But New Year and Obon were special.

 

 

On those days, we were allowed to drink carbonated orange juice, and we savored it slowly as though it were expensive wine.

The taste of that orange soda back then was truly exceptional.

Incidentally, one of those cousins now lives only about ten minutes away by motorcycle from my home in Kobe.

I discovered this only a few years ago and was very surprised.

At our age now, we often talk about each other’s parents.

“Our fathers really are brothers, aren’t they? They are similar. Both are uninterested in their children and rather cold toward their wives. Not very good fathers, really.”

And we also discovered that we both love our mothers.

At my age, saying “I love my mother” can sometimes be viewed rather suspiciously in Japan.

 

A Video of Matching the Pairs for the Obon Earrings

 

Especially if a married man says something like that in front of his wife, it will almost certainly create tension at home.

The golden rule is to avoid talking about your mother in front of your wife altogether.

Perhaps this has nothing to do with nationality or religion.

 

Ideally, of course, human relationships should be good enough that people can speak openly about such things.

Now then, when I entered high school, I ended up attending the same school as a female cousin who was the same age as me.

She was rather attractive, so she was quite popular.

My friends often said to me,

“Introduce me to your cousin.”

I did everything I could to stop them.

“She may be cute, but her personality is extremely sharp. You should stay away from her. She is the kind of woman who speaks with words like knives.”

That was what I kept telling them.

Very occasionally, however, the opposite happened too.

 

“Apparently ○○-chan likes you. She says she wants to go out somewhere with you sometime. By the way, why do I have to do this? This is annoying.”

That was more or less how my cousin delivered the message.

Then, when Obon came around, it would sometimes be revealed in front of the entire family that my cousin had been leaking private information about my high school life to her mother.

My own mother seemed extremely grateful because my cousin effectively served as a surveillance officer for her son.

In theory, there is no reason why our relatives could not still gather together today.

But nowadays, the large family gatherings no longer happen.

One of my father’s siblings caused a small problem, and because of that, everyone can no longer gather at the same time.

Individually, everyone gets along well.

 

 

But when the entire group comes together, the balance somehow collapses.

My older brother analyzed the situation like this:

“A Japan–U.S. summit can probably work. But once China, the United States, and Japan all sit at the same table, things start becoming complicated. And then Russia is still there too. That is a powerful opponent. It is better if everyone holds bilateral meetings.”

In other words, because of a small problem among the parents, we children lost the opportunity to see each other during Obon.

I imagine that ordinary people in the United States, Russia, China, and Japan generally have a certain amount of respect or goodwill toward people from the other countries.

But relations between governments are more complicated.

Having all of our relatives together during Obon was an incredibly enjoyable time.

 

 

Perhaps because it is no longer possible, the personal value of Obon continues to increase for me.

Although, if those gatherings still happened today, I might instead be complaining,

“This is such a hassle. It is taking away my pearl time.”

With memories like these in mind, I wanted to introduce Obon 03, and the entire seven-piece Obon series.

Personally, I did not find 03 particularly entertaining while I was writing it.

What do you think?

Something I want to write about for Obon 04 suddenly came into my head just now.

It is about Yusu, the region where the pearls used in this Obon series were cultivated.

Someone will probably say,

“Wouldn’t that be more important information for a pearl product page?”

Perhaps.

But there are probably many people who are not interested in that either.

Everyone is different.

Speaking of which, earlier this evening I went out to buy some bread.

On the way, I happened to run into a pearl dealer.

 

 

Many of the other pearl dealers also appeared to be open for business.

Today is August 10, 2026.

I had assumed that everyone had already started their summer vacation, but apparently not.

The dealer I happened to meet showed me some strands of suna keshi.

These are extremely tiny keshi pearls, smaller than 1 mm, almost like grains of sand.

They are usually made into necklaces using at least three strands together.

Sometimes as many as eight strands are braided together before being made into a necklace.

They are quite unusual necklaces.

I have been thinking for several years that I would like to try making one.

If you send me a message saying,

“Make a suna keshi necklace.”

 

 

then perhaps I will finally get started a little sooner.

That will be all for Obon 03.

Oh, and please take a look at the Flower Jem YouTube channel too.

There are videos of this particular pair of earrings, as well as a comparison video showing all seven Obon pairs together.

I hope they will be useful when you are looking at the earrings.

See you again!

 

 

 

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