STORY KIM LEE The most beautiful pearls in the world have long been synonymous with the name Mikimoto. It all began more than a hundred years ago, in a roller-coaster rags-to-riches tale.
THIS fall, vintage is the rage at Mikimoto. Its latest jewellery collection looks back at the company’s rich 112-year history, putting a twist on classics that make the pieces appear contemporary, yet timeless.
It is a return to the early roots of jewellery at K Mikimoto & Co Ltd, a company inspired by childhood observations of a young boy over a century ago. It is a story that many may have forgotten in Mikimoto’s dominance of the cultured pearl market over the last few decades, but oh, what a tale it is…
The eldest son of a poor Japanese noodle shop owner stood on the shores of his hometown. His country was at the end of an era: the age of the Samurai was drawing its final breaths as Japan looked outwards, to the West, for new life.
This boy, Kokichi Mikimoto, was also looking outwards – to the sea, captivated by the pearl divers of Ise and the treasures they sought from the depths. If the child dreamed about a pearl empire of his own, it is not known. But that is where his life has led him.
Mikimoto’s fascination with the pearl industry was both escape and inspiration from a meagre life. He grew up studying in a tiny, one-room school in Toba, then a town in Mie Prefecture. He left school at 13, to sell vegetables to help feed his family. It was the first of several business experiences he would encounter before returning to his childhood
fascination, by starting a pearl farm with his wife, Ume, in 1888.
Mikimoto was 30 years old then, and pearl cultivation was at the time still unproven. But the concept seized Mikimoto’s imagination and days, after he learned of an experimental process from an authority in marine biology in 1890. He began trials at an island, known today as Mikimoto Pearl Island.
Difficult years followed. Progress was nonexistent to start with. Then came an epidemic of red tide plankton which killed almost all his oysters, save for 1,000 in Ago Bay. Bankruptcy stared him in the face. But Mikimoto persevered – he had a doggedness that earned him nicknames like “Pearl Manic” and “Pearl Nut”. It also earned him the sweet satisfaction of creating the world’s first semi-spherical pearl in 1893. Five such pearls were harvested, and a patent for the process granted in 1896 by the Japanese government.
With positive results at last, Mikimoto prepared to open a new pearl farm, only to be confronted by tragedy again. His wife, his source of encouragement, died suddenly at 32. Then came another outbreak of red tide.
His fortunes turned when he found his first spherical pearl in 1905. Indistinguishable from a natural pearl, it sparked Mikimoto’s reign as the “Pearl King” over an empire bounded by ambition and vision.
For the cultivation of pearls, Mikimoto was blessed by Toba’s ideal waters. For the evolution of Mikimoto style jewellery, he was blessed to be living at a time when Japan embraced Western learning. Mikimoto sent craftsmen to Europe to master jewellery techniques in production and design. Melded with Japanese aesthetics, a distinctive Mikimoto style emerged, featuring fine work with mille grain, seed pearl settings and lace work.
He opened his first Mikimoto Pearl Store in Ginza with his first jewellery collection in 1899. It was Japan’s first to specialise in pearls. Soon after came Mikimoto’s first jewellery manufacturing facility. Visitors to Japan fell in love with Mikimoto pearls and designs, which moved with the times, incorporating artdeco in the 1920s, pairing pearls with jade and onyx.
Through jewellery and ever refining techniques in pearl cultivation, and his no compromise on quality, Mikimoto made cultured pearls one of Japan’s first successful exports.
Impressive achievements followed – stores opened overseas; it started cultivating black pearls; Mikimoto farms expanded to Palau; it became jeweller to the Imperial court; it created prestigious pearl-encrusted models of the Horyuji Temple and America’s Liberty Bell; Kokichi Mikimoto was recognised as one of Japan’s ten great inventors by the Emperor; the company won its first De Beers Diamond International Award… The list continues to grow, the latest achievement being the Mikimoto pearl-studded crown for this year’s Miss Universe Pageant.
Kokichi Mikimoto retired to a simple life in a house overlooking his beloved Ago Bay, unaffected by the enormity of his legacy. He died at age 96, leaving an empire that continues to be family-run. The fourth-generation captain of the pearl empire, Toyohiko Mikimoto, still watches over the world-renowned pearl farms at Ago Bay. Operations since his ancestor’s time have grown to include its American subsidiary Mikimoto (America) Co. Ltd and other country offices, and a global network of stores. The company’s international reputation for fine pearls, design and quality remains an unblemished reflection of its lustrous offerings in upscale showrooms around the world.
If Mikimoto is watching his descendants from beyond the Pearly Gates, he may well approve. His legendary words to no less than the Japanese Emperor, spoken shortly after successfully cultivating a perfectly round pearl, were, “I would like to adorn the necks of all women in the world with pearls.” So, it seems, would his descendants. S
