In the late 1800’s, the son of a Japanese noodle maker, Kokichi Mikimoto was the first to culture a pearl. He spent every waking hour on research and experiments in seeding the oysters, and on the 11th of July 1893, his dream had been realised when he opened one of his seeded oysters and found a lustrous pearl he had cultured. The methods Mikimoto had developed for culturing pearls has him considered the founder or the cultured pearl industry.

There are 3 main groups of cultured pearls, these are:

• South Sea White Pearls
• South Sea Black Pearls
• Akoya Pearls
• Freshwater Pearls

Other pearls include:

• Mabe Pearls
• Keshi Pearls



South Sea White Pearls

The white South Sea cultured pearl is referred to as the “Queen of Pearls.” The ‘white-lipped’ and the ‘silver-lipped shell is mainly found in the waters off the coast of north Western Australia, and the ‘gold-lipped’ or ‘yellow-lipped’ shell found mainly in the Philippines and Indonesia. They are grown in the Pinctada Maxima oyster, which is the largest pearl producing oyster. The oyster produces pearls from 9mm – 18mm, and occasionally larger.

Either wild oysters or oysters from hatcheries are collected, cleaned and prepared for the seeding operation. The seeding process is an extremely delicate process in which a spherical nucleus of polished freshwater mussel shell and a small piece of mantle tissue is surgically implanted into the host oyster. The pearls are then harvested around two years later.

Most of the harvested pearls will be in different shapes such as oval, drop, button and baroque. White South Sea pearls come in a variety of colours including white through to silver blue, and from cream to golden colours. 



Souh Sea Black Pearls

Black South Sea pearls are grown in the black-lipped oyster Pinctada Margariterfera. These are indigenous to the lagoons and atolls of French Polynesia and the Cook Islands.

The process for seeding is very similar to the White South Sea pearls. The Black South Sea pearls range from 8mm – 16mm in size and cultivation time ranges from one year to two years. They range in shapes from round, oval, button and baroque.

Tahiti is the world’s largest producer of the black South Sea pearls, accounting for 95% of the world’s production, the remaining 5% coming from the Cook Islands. Colours of Tahitian pearls range from greens to peacock green, aubergine and dark black. 



Akoya Pearls

Akoya pearls are cultivated in the Pinctada Martensii oyster, using techniques that were developed over 100 years ago by Mikimoto. Today most Akoya oysters are bred in onshore tanks, and when about 7cm in diameter, are seeded with a mother-of-pearl nucleus.

The cultivation of the Akoya pearls is between eight months and two years. Only one pearl grows in the oyster. The size of the pearls range from 2mm – 9mm and very rarely 10mm. They are generally round in shape but are found in baroque, button, oval and drop shapes. Colours are mainly white, cream and yellow. There are no natural black Akoya cultured pearls.

Until the late 80’s, Japan dominated the production of the Akoya pearls, however, since then the Chinese have been producing them in large quantities, posing a threat to the Japanese Akoya pearl industry. 



Freshwater Pearls

Freshwater pearls are grown in a mussel species called Hyriopsis Schlegeli. The mussels are found in rivers and lakes and ponds in China, Japan, Europe, Russia and America. In the 1914 Lake Biwa in Japan was one of the first sites for the cultivation for freshwater pearls, they were noted for their high quality. Production has now stopped on these pearls due to problems with pollution and the competition from cheap Chinese production.

Freshwater pearls are obtained by grafting a number of mantle tissue from another mollusc. Pearls sacs then form around the mantle and will eventually disappear. The pearl then grows up to any possible size, depending on the number of years the mussel is left in the water. A freshwater mussel can produce up to 50 pearls at one time.

Freshwater pearls range from 2mm – 10mm, and rarely larger, depending on how long they are left. It can take three to four years to reach the 7mm size. After harvesting, the mussel is put back into its natural environment without a new grafting, and can be used again in a few years. Freshwater pearls come in an endless variety of shapes, sizes and colours.