Mikimoto: The Man Who Cultured the Pearl
In 1893 Kokichi Mikimoto produced the first cultured pearls; by 1905 he had round ones. The GIA's account of the Japanese cultured pearl is the story of how a natural accident became an industry.
Kokichi Mikimoto was a Japanese entrepreneur who set out to do what jewellers had considered impossible: to grow a pearl on purpose. According to the Gemological Institute of America's reading list on Japanese cultured pearls, Mikimoto first succeeded in producing cultured pearls in 1893, and by 1905 he had produced round cultured pearls, the shape the market wanted.
Mikimoto's achievement was not the idea but the commercial system: hatcheries, divers, grafting technicians and grading.
The technique inserts a nucleus into the oyster, which coats it with nacre, the same substance as a natural pearl. The result is a real pearl, grown with human assistance rather than by pure chance. Mikimoto's achievement was not the idea, which others had attempted, but the commercial system: hatcheries, divers, grafting technicians and grading, built into an industry.
What changed
Before cultured pearls, every pearl was a natural accident, found by opening thousands of oysters. The cultured pearl made pearls available beyond the tiny circle that could afford natural ones, and it moved the centre of the pearl trade to Japan. Mikimoto's name became the generic term for a cultured pearl in much of the world, which tells you how complete the victory was.
The natural pearl did not disappear. It became rarer, more expensive and more documented, the preserve of collectors and the auction room. The cultured pearl became the jewel of the middle classes and, at the top end, of the great houses. Both are real pearls. Only one is an accident.
