PEARL KING’S LIFE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 November 1938, Page 7

PEARL KING’S LIFE

INSIGHT INTO CULTURAL METHODS HOW OYSTERS YIELD THEIR TREASURES. A PAINSTAKING PROCESS. One of the happiest memories of a recent short residence in Japan is that of my meeting with Kokcihi Mikimoto, the Pearl King, writes H. W. J. Gilmour, in the “Sydney Morning Herald.” Tokyo was gay with ideographic neon and lantern processions on one of the several evenings on which the tall of Nanking was being celebrated, when, strolling along the Ginza. I entered the pearl store of Mikimoto and was courteously treated to a private showing of a film depicting the culture of pearls at Ise Bay. The peaceful and picturesque occupational scenes in the film often recurred to me in tne ensuing few weeks spent amid the industrial turmoil of the warconscious, seething cities of Yokohama, Osaka, Kobe, and Nagoya. , Finally, finding myself at the lastnamed place only 50 odd miles from Toba-machi, the seat of Mikirnoto’s pearl production, I decided to make the train journey round the southern shore of Ise Bay, and through picturesquely wooded hills to Toba. Here I was met by one of Mikirnoto’s supervisors, and we boarded a’speedy launch for Shinju Shima (Pearl Island). Near the landing stage stood a party of girl divers in snappy white cotton costumes and caps. Their eyes were protected by rubber sheathed glass goggles. These were the "mermaids,” who, each equipped with a wooden bucket, gather from the local sea-bed lhe bay oysters of the type most suitable for perfect pearls. Diving from a boat into two to three fathoms of water, they place the oysters in small baskets, which they empty on return to the surface into the floating buckets, to which they are tethered ■bj r a length of rope. THE MAN HIMSELF. My guide introduced me to a spare and elderly man attired in a grey kimono. This was Kokichi Mikimoto. In his hand he carried a* five-foot silver-mounted stave; and a pair of kindly and twinkling eyes looked out of a lined face which more the imprint of ’hose years spent as a veritable hermit on this island, battling against sceptics and critics of his experiments for Ihe production' of nat-. ural pearls by artificial means. Here he endured hardships and discourc gements which would have daunted I the majority of men, even fellow practitioners of the knightly Japanese code of Bushido. As we strolled conversing towards a neighbouring glass and timber structure. I could sense, the dynamic personality of this quietly spoken old man, who so resembled an ascetic monk in appearance —save for the fact that he was wearing a bowler hat. Mikimoto was born at Toba. on the mainland, in 1358 Son of a vermicelli dealer (or udon), and one of a family, of nine, he was practically self taught. When 22 he found his way to Tokyo and became associated with some Chinese pearl merchants, from whose example he determined to profit. Returning to Toba he energised lhe pearl diving business which was practised' there ir a primitive fashion. In 1890, another pilgrimage to Hokyo brought him into contact with a biologist whose theories gave him lhe idea of producing perfect natural pearls by supplying oysters with ’he necessary irritant. FIRST “BLISTER.” Pearls result from an oyster's endeavour to protect itself from an impinging organism or substance which has entered the shell. In 1899 Mikimotor produced his first “blister,” or half pearl, and 19 <years later, his first perfect pearl. The painstaking process is as follows:— The baby . oysters selected by the girl divers are about the size of a sixpence. These are placed in protective wire cages for three years before they, are subjected to an operation to convert them to pearl producers. Several assistants were at work performing lhe delicate operation of' inserting a minute fresh water mussel beneath the layer of each oyster, and between the stomach and kidney. These oysters are then placed in steel cages containing '.v number of shelves. Each cage holds about 200 “silent workers” which are expected to secrete the required protective matter (nacre) for seven more years, during which time the cages are suspended about two fathoms deep and are inspected about 20' times for painting, etc. The wire keeps out the marauding octopus and other enemies of the oysters.

So, after 10 years of captivity and care, the oysters are made to disgorge their wealth —if any. Allowing for deaths from treatment or natural causes, and for unsuccessful operations, approximately half each cageful of oysters may produce anything from a “blister” to a perfect and shimmering pearl, and now and then, the unusual black pearl. Only a very small percentage, however, are declared at A.l at Mikjmoto’s own stores. The imperfect' pearls are to be seen by the trayful in small stores in old Koyto and Yokohama. Approximately 60,000 acres of seabed are now under the control of this remarkable old man, who 14 years ago established another farm at Palao, in the tropic waters of the Mandated Carolines, not far from Australia’s Pacific front door. To witness the scalpel of an expert discover a glistening pearl in the quivering pink and silvery flesh of a matured oyster, is surely to view one of the strangest achievements of man in the realms of biology.