Yumoto Wood: The pearl is divided into foreign circles (Figure)

In the traditional Chinese jewelry market, pearls have a status equal to that of jade. The famous sentence of the Qing dynasty writer Wu Meicun, “Pearl's priceless jade without flaws”, can be well proved. However, the number of natural pearls is very rare, and the highest quality are all owned by the Wang family and aristocrats, so early attempts to artificially cultivate them began. According to historical records, as early as the BC, the Chinese knew how to cultivate semi-circular beads. In the 18th century, the Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus inserted stimulants into the inner oyster shells to make them beads. However, the real mastermind and gradually gaining advantage came from Japan in the early 20th century. Yuki Motoki, who was called “Pearl King”, led the breeding industry and his followers to give the public a universal “round” pearl. opportunity. A few days ago, the reporter visited the pearl farm of Yukimoto Miki in the field to find out what happened.

The combination of pearls and diamonds, taking into account traditional warmth and contemporary luxury

Pearls selected after entering the processing field

The temptation of a circle: almost all round pearls on the market grow.

After boarding the museum on Pearl Island in Toba, we learned that most of the natural pearls are not round, even if it is a pearl embedded in the crown of an ancient emperor, its circle is only relative, and in the display cabinet The pearl dynasty officials of the Qing Dynasty were also inlaid with many small pearls. It is not like the size of the gorgeous longans that we saw in movies and TV dramas.

Today, round pearls on the market are almost always cultivated. Such beads first appeared in the world exhibitions in the early 20th century, but they were dismissed as "fake goods" by some businesses and lawsuits were filed. Fortunately, Makiji spent a lot of time to spread knowledge and information about cultured pearls and correct people's discrimination and misunderstanding of artificial culture. His brand, MIKIMOTO, opened branches in major cities in the world. In 1924, Mikimoto entered the room and was designated by the Japanese royal family as a supplier of luxury jewellery. Since then, the Japanese royal family held a wedding ceremony, and these round pearls became an essential gift. Even the British royal family in Europe, and the pearls on the crown and accessories are provided by Mikimoto.

The technician intercepts the mantle and inserts a small piece of the mantle and the bead core into another mother's beak.

Nurturing skills: It takes 4-5 years to grow a pearl

It should be noted that pearls are jewels that are called "lively". Their formation, like human growth, requires a good environment. The ecological environment of the coast, the climate, the temperature of seawater, and sunshine all have a great influence on the culture of pearls. If typhoons, red tides, and cold winters are encountered, the output and quality of pearls will be affected. Mikimoto Kokie set his own pearl breeding base in Hakone, because it has good conditions.

After the basic conditions are met, the key to successful breeding is maternal shell and insertion of nuclear technology. There are as many as 100,000 types of shells in the world, but only 6 of them are used for pearl farming. These shellfish are called mother of pearl. Among the Japanese pearl farms, Akoya pearl shells are the most widely bred, and there are also a small number of black butterfly shells. In the Kenshima Pearl Farm, Akoya pearls are cultivated. Workers breed pearl shells on the island, raise pearl shells, prepare mother-of-pearl pearls, insert beads and mantle cells into the mother's shellfish, and recuperate mothers after surgery.

The busy and cleanliness of the farm is entirely dependent on the growth of mother-of-pearl. In June of each year, technicians are required to complete the nuclear implantation of all mother bays, and harvesting usually starts at the end of December, because a pearl culture takes 4-5 years and harvest must be “mature”. Mother bell. Collecting workers to salvage pearl shells, cutting off the adductor muscles, the shellfish containing pearls separated from the shellfish, shellfish meat into a mixer, adding lime powder can make shellfish and pearl separation, and then separated The pearls are washed and the final pearl is obtained.

MIKIMOTO black and white pearl necklace, very luxurious

Quality of beads: less than 10% of pearls meet the standard

According to Masahiro Ichimura of Yumotogi, gloss is the first criterion for judging the quality of pearls. Even pearls bred from the same type of mother-of-pearl in the same waters will each exhibit their own unique qualities. Based solely on this factor, there are a wide variety of quality choices. Therefore, less than 10% of pearls met the criteria during the screening process.

The depth of the luster is closely related to the thickness of the nacre, so the pearl with thicker nacre can often emit a deeper luster. The smoother and lesser the surface of the pearl, the higher the quality. However, each pearl will leave a little natural mark, and there is no such thing as a flawless pearl. The second is to see the color, the pearl is mainly white and milky white. Akoya pearls cultured in Hakdo Island are different from normal white in color. They include pink, blue, silver white and cream color varieties, while those that are most uniformly colored are considered to be the best color. The closer the pearl shape is to the perfect sphere, the higher the rating. When two pearls have the same quality at the same time, the larger one has a higher value.

After selecting these pearls, they finally entered the processing factory in Tokyo and became the material for making jewelry. In the end, the flagship store in Ginza may stand proudly. (Huang Jiali)