by Angela Magnotti Andrews
This luxurious 18k gold solitaire pearl ring is well-crafted with a soft comfort-fit band. The single pearl is an elegant near-round, 12mm black South Sea pearl, cultured in the world-famous Mikimoto fisheries.
According to author and journalist Victoria Finlay, Kokichi Mikimoto "is the perfect slightly flawed protagonist--a poor boy made good; a stubborn man who ignored everyone who told him his dream was impossible" {2}. After studying the man for myself, I concur with her conclusion. Here, I will attempt to prove her assertion correct.
A Fortuitous Decade
Beginning where all amazing rags-to-riches stories begin, our story opens in the sheltered bays and inlets of Toba on the Shima Peninsula in Japan. The year is 1858, and our young hero enters the world as we all do, naked and covered in goo, though his is a fortuitous decade to be born. Just four years prior, after over 50 years of unsuccessful attempts made on behalf of the USA, Commodore Matthew C. Perry successfully negotiated a landmark trade agreement between Japan and the US. For the first time since 1639, Japan opened its doors to foreign trade {2}. As the eldest boy of a noodle-shop owner, Kokichi Mikimoto observed keenly his father's dedication and innovation in providing for his family. When noodle sales were low, his father would supplement their income by selling charcoal and vegetables {6}. Life was hard, but intelligence and curiosity would nurture Kokichi's boldness and determination.A Seed Was Planted
The unseasonably tragic death of his father forced the 11-year-old boy to grow up swiftly and take on the responsibility of selling noodles and vegetables to support his family. To amuse himself on slow days, he took up the sport of juggling his wares with his feet. In 1875, this entertaining custom attracted the attention of the crew aboard the Silver, a US Naval warship in search of provisions. Delighted by his antics and relieved that his ingenuity had made their decision of which merchant to prosper, the crew bought all their provisions from him. After that glorious day, with his fortune rattling around in his pockets, he set off on an adventure to Tokyo {2}. It was at there, in the Port of Yokohama that he learned about the power of exports and the large markups on sea cucumber, abalone, and especially pearls from the oysters native to his home in Toba. In the markets of Tokyo, a seed was planted within Kokichi Mikimoto which would one day grow into a jewel as wondrous, if not more wondrous than the cultured pearls he would one day become famous for.The Competition Was Fierce
Upon returning home, he set about collecting seed pearls from the North Pacific Ocean and selling them throughout the province. By 1885, he earned a position among the province's most successful traders. A summons from the Emperor's mother established him, but the plight of natural pearls in Japan was growing. Oysters were being overharvested, and supplies were diminishing. Ever the creative problem solver, Mr. Mikimoto, with the help of his wife Ume, set out to find a way to encourage oysters to propagate and produce pearls. Several men around the world were working on this same concept of cultivating pearls intentionally, and the competition was fierce. Undeterred, he and his wife took out a loan in 1888, and established an oyster farm on the Shinmei inlet {8}. The Chinese had succeeded in producing Mabe pearls by introducing a button into the oysters. However, the Mikimotos set their sights on perfecting the art of inducing oysters to produce perfectly round pearls.The World's First Cultured Pearl
Their early attempts met with failure, and in 1892, disaster struck in the form of a devastating red tide, which killed all of their oysters. Undeterred, they set about replenishing their farm, and the next year they found the world's first semi-spherical cultured pearl. Kokichi Mikimoto had become the first man to ever grown a pearl! Unfortunately, later that year his precious Ume died from complications of surgery. Now faced with raising his five children alone, Kokichi was even more determined to achieve perfection. He conducted more and more experiments until he finally discovered the perfect nucleus. In the early 1900s, he turned his attention to the problem of where to place said nuclei to achieve a round pearl. He experimented by dividing his oysters into groups and injecting the nuclei into different regions of each group.A Grueling Task
Unfortunately, in 1905, tragedy struck again. Another red tide wiped out over 850,000 oysters in Japan. Determined to realize the results of his experimentation, Mr. Mikimoto set to work opening every single one of his oysters. I'm sure he had plenty of help, and in all likelihood his oysters numbered only a fraction of the total lost that year. However, the task must have still been extremely grueling, unthinkable for most. But for Kokichi Mikimoto, a man of fierce determination, any sacrifice was worth the payoff of seeing his dream succeed. And succeed it did. The five perfectly round pearls he recovered that week were all he needed to ensure the perfect placement of the thousands of nuclei he implanted into his next bed of oysters.His Outlandish Dream
It was this discovery that led to his meeting in 1905 with the Meiji Emperor at Ise Shrine {6}, and it was to the Emperor that he confided his outlandish dream: "I want to live long enough to see the day when we have so many pearls we can sell necklaces for two dollars to every woman who can afford one, and give them away for free to every woman who can't" {2}. At a time when pearls were a symbol of power, influence, and great wealth, this statement must have sounded ludicrous to the Emperor. It is no wonder that so many tried to dissuade him from his goal. Though many of these naysayers were well-meaning acquaintances, there was one faction of detractors driven by sheer panic to not only dissuade him, but to discredit him.Bad Press
When Mr. Mikimoto first introduced his pearls to London's jewelry scene in 1919, the overlords of the industry set out to decry his pearls as fakes. Despite the copious scientific evidence to the contrary, Mr. Mikimoto faced an uphill battle that would last almost a decade. In an effort to counter this bad press, he put his superior international marketing skills to work. He oversaw the creation of stunning sculptures paved in pearls, which were exhibited at the World's Fairs throughout the 1920s. Still, the battle raged between natural and cultured pearls. The brave inventor fought valiantly on the shores of London, Japan, and America to establish the cultured pearl's place on the world's stage until 1927, when a visit with Thomas Edison settled the score.The Eccentric Pearl King
"This isn't a cultured pearl, it's a real pearl...It is one of the wonders of the world that you were able to culture pearls. It is something which is supposed to be biologically impossible," Mr. Edison raved {4}. A fortuitous report of Mr. Edison's endorsement in the New York Times created a near-instant demand for cultured pearls. By 1930, Kokichi Mikimoto had realized his dream. Despite a worldwide pearl crash, Mikimoto pearls rose to the top, outselling their natural counterparts. In these later years, Mr. Mikimoto transformed his look and grew into his reputation as the eccentric Pearl King. His black coat, black bowler hat, and black doctor's bag became synonymous with the extravagant gestures he made and the astonishing pearls he cultivated, but never wore. These extravagant gestures ranged from elaborate gifts sent overseas to America, to the grand bonfire in 1932, when he set fire to 720,000 inferior pearls cultivated by sloppy competitors. It was during this particular scene that Mikimoto established that quality trumps quantity and that poor-quality pearls were useful only for burning.A Legacy of Unwavering Excellence
Holding to his high standards until his death in 1954, Kokichi Mikimoto left a legacy of dedication persistence in innovation and unwavering excellence in culturing pearls. Today, Mikimoto remains true to these standards of excellence and perfection established by its founding father. The company developed a rigorous grading scale based on pearl's luster, surface, perfection, color, and shape. Only Japanese cultured pearls which rise to the top 5% of this strict scale are considered worthy of the Mikimoto name. When you purchase a Mikimoto pearl, you can be sure that you've purchased the cream of the crop.Bibliography
1. A Jeweler. "Kokichi Mikimoto Legendary Designer and Creator of the Cultured Pearl." Accessed July 10, 2013. http://www.ajeweler.com/BioMikimoto.html. 2. Finlay, Victoria. “Jewels: A Secret History.” New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2007. 3. Kari Pearls. "Mikimoto and Wife Ume of Pearl Island." Accessed July 10, 2013. http://www.karipearls.com/mikimoto-and-wife-ume-of-pearl-island.html. 4. Mikimoto. "Kokichi Mikimoto--A History of Triumph Against Adversity." Accessed July 10, 2013. http://www.mikimoto.co.uk/blog/about-our-heritage/triumph-against-adversity. 5. Mikimoto. "Our Founder." Accessed July 10, 2013. http://www.mikimotoamerica.com/our-heritage/our-founder/. 6. Mikimoto. "Our History." Accessed July 10, 2013. http://www.mikimotoamerica.com/our-heritage/our-history/. 7. Mikimoto. "Our Philosophy." Accessed July 10, 2013. http://www.mikimotoamerica.com/our-heritage/our-philosophy/. 8. New World Encyclopedia. "Mikimoto Kokichi." Accessed July 10, 2013. http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Mikimoto_Kokichi. 9. WriteWellCFL. "Mikimoto: The History of the Cultured Pearl." Yahoo!Voices, July 19, 2007. http://voices.yahoo.com/mikimoto-history-cultured-pearl-443600.html?cat=46.11 years ago
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