Mikimoto, a world leader in the realm of exquisite pearls
Japanese luxury presents an interesting dichotomy: appreciating the beauty in imperfection, as in the philosophy of wabi-sabi, and striving for utmost perfection, as is the case with pretty much everything else. But when it comes to flawless beauty, Mikimoto pearls are perhaps the best example of nurture overriding nature.
The 115-year-old brand has been synonymous with pearls since the end of World War II, when founder Kokichi Mikimoto started to market his underwater treasures internationally by opening stores in Paris, New York, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Shanghai and Bombay. His success made Mikimoto among the first Japanese brands to gain global recognition, and his famous name now comes with an enormous pile of honours that include being inducted into Japan’s House of Peers, posthumously awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure, and also being the first official jeweller for pageants under the Miss Universe Organisation.
But the brand’s success didn’t come easy. Kokichi, who was inspired by the pearl divers he saw in his childhood, obtained a loan to open his first oyster farm in the Mie Prefecture’s Ago Bay in 1888. Japan’s natural pearls were farmed to dangerously low numbers because of their popularity then, so Kokichi wanted to see if he could replicate nature’s beautiful “accidents”. He couldn’t for five years. He was on the brink of bankruptcy by the time he managed to harvest just five hemispherical pearls. While this was heartening progress, it would be another 12 years before he could produce completely round pearls, which he incidentally found in a handful of half-dead oysters following a devastating plague that nearly wiped out his farm in 1905.
His scrappy nature has, as we now know, paid off. And it’s not just the fact that he created the world’s first cultured pearl that gives Mikimoto pearls its cliff-like prices. Mikimoto only accepts the top 5 per cent of pearl harvests in any given year, and further divides those into different grades. So one strand of grade AAA pearls – the very top of the line – can take well over 10 years to complete, as each harvest may yield only one or two pearls that not only boast unbelievable beauty, but match all the other pearls on the string.
It also took Kokichi a great deal of effort to convince the general public that cultured pearls, or the ones he made at least, were not inferior to natural ones. It was a common sentiment in 1930s, since the exploding popularity of cultured pearls in Japan put many pearl divers and natural pearl companies (whose products were understandably much more expensive) out of jobs. He responded by shovelling tons of inferior pearls into a fire in front of the Kobe Chamber of Commerce in 1932, telling everyone that he would rather destroy a pearl than sell one of inferior quality. His stunt – and mandate – proved effective, because Mikimoto is now the undisputed gold standard in the world of exceptional pearls.
