Now Pearls are fashion icon. It is hard, generally round shaped object produced inside the soft tissue of living mollusk. It has a history of thousands years. In ancient Rome, pearls were considered as symbol of social status and wealth. Only people of the Elite were allowed to wear this. Pearls were the token of love for the Greeks.
In the past, it was very difficult to find the pearls of perfect quality and round shape. But there was a man in Japan who cultured the high quality pearls and brought about revolutionary changes in pearl market. He is the father of beautiful Akoya pearl. His name is Kokichi mikimoto.
Mikimoto was born in Japan. His father had a noodle shop. In his early life, he used to sell vegetable to support his family. In 1888, he introduced his pearl oyster near his home. He and his wife, Ume, tried hard to cultivate high quality rounded pearl. First he was able to make a hemispherical cultured pearl in 1893. After few years, he created half spherical pearl and got the patent on producing round pearls.
At first he tried to culture classic white pearls and got success. He also wanted to culture black and silver pearls. In 1914, he started to culture black south sea pearls and was successful in 1931. It was a huge 10 mm pearls. He always wanted to recognize his name worldwide. To do this he started to spread his business of pearls in United States and Europe. He made pearl shops in many cities of this region.
He also had to face criticism about his cultured pearls. Most of cultured pearls are of low quality. But Mikito defended himself successfully. He ensured that his cultured pearls were of high quality.
Mikito died on 1954. But his pearls are still popular and his brand is the first brand of Japan that has international recognition. His ideas of culturing pearls help to improve the pearl industry of Japan.
You can buy Mikito's Akoya pearl from many reputable pearl shops and also from online. They will help you to get one.