Hello, it’s been a while since my last post.
This time, I’d like to share an article about Akoya pearls harvested more than 60 years ago.
I originally wrote this piece on August 16.
The content was used as subtitles for a YouTube video showing the sorting of these pearls and the creation of a 9 mm bracelet. A shorter version of the text was also posted on Instagram.
Since it has been quite some time since I last updated this blog, I decided to post the full original text here.
Today, Mikimoto holds an unshakable position as the pioneer of Akoya pearl cultivation. However, this article also touches on the fact that in reality, round Akoya pearls were successfully cultivated earlier in Sukumo City, Kōchi Prefecture.
I don’t particularly wish to loudly proclaim that Sukumo was ahead of Mikimoto. I only want to mention that such a theory exists.
A pearl dealer I know has studied this subject for many years and often summarizes his research into articles. He always says, “Sukumo succeeded before Mikimoto.”
Most pearl dealers, however, have little interest in such historical details.
It’s a situation not unlike Thomas Edison, who is often credited with inventing the light bulb, film technology, the phonograph, and even aspects of the telephone. In fact, many of these inventions existed earlier, created by others. Edison used patents and business acumen to ultimately claim them as his own.
Kokichi Mikimoto was similar. He legally secured pearl cultivation as his own invention through patents, even though the techniques had been developed by others. In fact, due to Mikimoto’s patents, many pearl farmers in Mie Prefecture were unable to engage in cultivation for a period of time.
One pearl company eventually took Mikimoto to court and won. That victory made it possible for anyone to cultivate Akoya pearls. For the pearl farmers of the time, this was their long-cherished wish—something they considered a matter of deep significance. Their feelings are still enshrined today in a monument that stands in one of Mie’s pearl-farming regions. It’s not a famous landmark, but when you stand before it, you can almost feel the intensity of their struggle and determination.
Edison and Mikimoto even exchanged words at one point, and Edison praised Mikimoto’s achievements. Both men were undeniably great entrepreneurs.
At this point in history, arguing whether Edison was truly the first to invent the light bulb seems almost meaningless. It’s more like, “Well, that’s just how it is.”
Personally, I find it romantic to imagine, “What if Sukumo had become the holy land of pearls?” Today, Sukumo is a quiet town with a small population, but in recent years a few stylish restaurants have opened, run by younger people who moved there.
I was surprised to see such places appear in Sukumo, as many of the owners had studied in big cities like Tokyo before returning.
As I also mention later in this article, when I worked for a pearl company, I visited Sukumo once or twice a year starting from my very first year of employment. The pearl farming waters there are rich in nutrients, and Akoya oysters grow very quickly when placed in that sea.
At the time, we were tasked with collecting wild Akoya oysters from Sukumo. On my first visit, we harvested about three million oysters. But by my tenth year, the number had fallen so sharply that we couldn’t even gather 100.
It’s said that not only Akoya oysters but also octopus, squid, and saury have been rapidly declining in Japanese waters.
The reasons suggested include the El Niño phenomenon, overfishing by China, overfishing by Japan, and climate change. But what fishermen often say in common is that their “longstanding instincts” no longer apply.
Now, back to the pearls harvested 60 years ago—what I’ve named the “Sixty Collection.”
Pearls with thin nacre or with impurities like mud within the nacre can crack in less than a month after harvest. It usually takes a few weeks for pearls to dry after being taken from the sea, but once the moisture leaves, poorly formed nacre layers quickly begin to split.
The pearls in the Sixty Collection, however, remain completely beautiful even after more than 60 years. This proves that their nacre was well-formed and contained very few impurities.
These pearls also reflect the longer cultivation periods of the past. Today, pearls are typically cultivated for only one or two years. Back then, cultivation lasted three to four years.
A longer cultivation period increases the risk of irregular shapes, but it also tends to produce pearls with thicker nacre.
That was a long preface.
Please enjoy the article.
Watch how pearls harvested over 60 years ago were selected and crafted into a 9 mm Akoya pearl bracelet — part of the Sixty Collection.
Hello, this is Flower Jem.
What makes it special is its age—it is said to have been harvested about 100 years ago.
I obtained this Akoya pearl from the great-grandson of Yasuie Tōdō, the man who first invented pearl stain removal.
Around 2023, I was still working at a pearl company. For me, that workplace had already lost all meaning.
I fell into adjustment disorder and depression, and eventually took a long leave of absence.
During that period, whenever I felt well enough, I made a conscious effort to meet people outside my workplace—as if opening a window to let fresh air into the locked room of my heart.
It was then that I met Mr. Tōdō, the great-grandson of Yasuie Tōdō. He was in his sixties.
He had once worked for a jewelry company in Tokyo, but in recent years he had been working with pearls in Kobe.
I told him that I had started selling pearls privately.
Over time, he began visiting my home, and sometimes we shared meals together.
One day he said, “I still have pearls my great-grandfather once cultivated.
I found them long ago when cleaning out my family home.
I’ve kept them all this time, but if they stay with me, they have no meaning.
If you’d like, why don’t you buy them from me?” I gladly agreed.
Based on the Akoya pearl market at the time, I made as fair an evaluation as possible, and after he accepted my offer, the pearls became mine.
That was in November 2022.
At the time, I was still employed at the pearl company, which made it difficult to send these pearls to a professional processor.
If I had done so independently, rumors might have spread that “Jem is planning to go independent.”
In Kobe’s pearl industry, everyone is closely connected. So, I asked P, the person who introduced me to Mr. Tōdō, to send the pearls out for stain removal on my behalf.
P was not in the pearl business but had acquaintances who used pearl-processing companies. He agreed to arrange it.
At the same time, P also asked the processor to treat a freshwater pearl he had been entrusted with by one of his own clients.
That would later become a problem.
Although I had given the pearls to P in November 2022, he did not send them out promptly.
He said he was too busy with his main profession as a painter.
About half a year later, in June 2023, he finally delivered them to the processing company.
Still, the process dragged on.
I continued to worry and inquire until January 2024, when P finally told me that the pearls had been returned.
But at the same time, he informed me that the single freshwater pearl he had submitted had been lost by the processor.
He then asked if he could hold on to my pearls as “evidence” while trying to recover the missing pearl.
Since it was an important pearl entrusted to him by his own client, I had little choice but to agree.
From then on, every few months I asked him about my pearls.
Each time, I heard a different reason—“The freshwater pearl still hasn’t been found,”
“It was finally returned, but I’m too busy,” “Now my mother has dementia, and I’m struggling.”
P is a serious, conscientious person, but at this time I grew suspicious.
Whenever I contacted him, he would explain at length how difficult his circumstances were.
Yet part of me thought, “If you have an hour to talk on the phone, couldn’t you simply send me my pearls?”
Because of his help, I had promised to let him choose some pearls as a gift from what I had purchased.
But he always told me he couldn’t find the time to sort them. Recently, after nearly three years, I contacted him again.
I told him: “This has taken far too long.
I had even arranged a buyer for those pearls, but they grew tired of waiting and left. Please, just send them to me.”
Once again, he explained his hardships—but then said, “Alright, I’ll select them roughly and send them to you.”
And so, the pearls I had purchased in November 2022 finally returned to me in August 2025.
Back then, I had no independent means of accessing a pearl-processing company. But now I do.
Last year, I even sent a few pearls myself, and they were returned within two weeks.
Looking back, P was sincere in many ways and considerate toward others. But perhaps he did not take me seriously.
He explained his hardships thoroughly but gave me only “I’m truly sorry” in return—while keeping me waiting for two and a half years.
I could not bring myself to demand my pearls back more forcefully after hearing his family circumstances.
I hold no anger, only sadness at feeling I had been taken lightly.
Still, after all this time, I now hold in my hands pearls that are deeply meaningful to me.
Pearl stain removal was invented in 1922 by Yasuie Tōdō.
Because his company was located in Kitano, Kobe, many pearl businesses gathered there, and Kobe is still called the “Pearl City” today. By the way, Tōdō was also the founder of Takahashi Pearl. Let me touch briefly on pearl history.
It is often said that pearl cultivation was invented in Mie Prefecture by Mikimoto.
But strictly speaking, it was Masayo Fujita and Tōkichi Nishikawa who developed the method for cultivating perfectly round pearls.
In 1913, in Sukumo City, Kōchi Prefecture, they produced the world’s first cultured round pearls.
This achievement even entered the global history of pearls, as Osaka became the site of an unprecedented pearl boom.
Mikimoto, on the other hand, had initially succeeded with semi-round pearls.
In fact, Sukumo had achieved the first true round cultured pearls.
Some in the industry know this, but because it touches on the legacy of the great Mikimoto, few will say it openly.
In 1920, a massive flood struck Sukumo, completely destroying its pearl farms and facilities.
To this day, there are those who say that if not for that disaster, Sukumo—not Ise—would have become the holy land of pearls.
At the time, Tōdō invested heavily in Sukumo’s pearl farms.
A small portion of those pearls has now, across the span of history, found its way to me.
The great-grandson who sold them to me said, “These are probably from my great-grandfather’s era.
I don’t want to exaggerate, but at least they are 60 years old.” But after researching, I found they were much older.
The Sukumo pearl farms with which Tōdō was involved operated from around 1915 to 1920.
Still, I must be careful: though I once called them “pearls from 100 years ago,” I should withdraw that statement.
My intention is not to inflate their value by emphasizing age.
The value lies in their connection to Yasuie Tōdō—the inventor of pearl stain removal, which has become the standard in the industry.
In this video, I plan to select some 9 mm pearls, pair them into earrings, and make a bracelet from the rest.
As for pricing, I will base it strictly on the cost at which I purchased them, guided by the Akoya market of that time.
One could argue for added value given their history, but more important to me is avoiding the taint of profiteering.
In truth, there is no proof these pearls were cultivated by Yasuie Tōdō himself.
But that is also true for all other pearls I sell.
My pricing always reflects both the quality of the pearl itself and the cost at which I obtained it.
The pearls’ origin, as mentioned, is Sukumo. The flood ended pearl farming there for decades.
But today, of course, pearls are still cultivated in the area.
Because the sea there is nutrient-rich, many pearl farms use it as a kind of nursery for their oysters.
The company where I once worked also sent Akoya oysters to be raised there regularly, and I myself visited the area once a year.
When I first began visiting, some 12 or 13 years ago, the waters were still home to abundant wild Akoya oysters.
Each year, nearly three million were harvested and shipped to pearl farms on islands between Korea and Japan.
But their numbers plummeted year by year. Three years ago, not even 100 could be found.
Research was conducted in collaboration with universities, but no solution was found.
For now, climate change is considered the main cause.
Meanwhile, black-lipped oysters, native to the south, have become more common in these waters.
So, these pearls are not extraordinarily beautiful, but they are full of romance and history.
Though Ise in Mie is celebrated as the holy land of pearls, Sukumo actually achieved round pearl cultivation slightly earlier.
That success was swallowed instantly by floodwaters. Even today, some pearl workers lament that disaster.
In return, Yasuie Tōdō—who lost everything in Sukumo—went on to invent pearl stain removal after moving to Kobe.
He spent his entire fortune on Sukumo, only to lose it to nature.
His other ventures failed, but his final invention succeeded. In 1922, he discovered stain removal.
By 1924, his business was flourishing, praised as “modern alchemy.”
When the Second World War began, his work was put on hold. The war ended in 1945, but that same year, he passed away.
He was a man swept by the times and by disaster, yet he left a great legacy. How did he view his own life?
I cannot imagine, but I find myself thinking of it now. I am writing this on August 16.
Yesterday, August 15, is marked in Japan as the anniversary of the war’s end.
Even now, wars continue to bring suffering. May those who perished rest in peace.
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