A gemstone grown in the sea
Also known as ”a drop of the moon” or ”the tears of a mermaid”. A gem with such romantic names is the pearl. When you look at the gleaming milky white round form, it is so beautiful that you want to call it like that. Along the coast of Uwa Sea, by the Uwa Island, there is an array of rafts for pearl farming floating on the sea, and from April to July, you can see the process of grafting being done everywhere. The cove of deep blue made up of rias coastline. The sea of the deep cove is calm, and the water quality, temperature and tide are the most suitable environment for pearl farming.
On Uwa Island, pearl farming started in 1915, and in 1978, it surpassed Mie Prefecture and recorded the highest production in Japan. Both the luster and color, and also the winding condition are considered the highest class in the world.
”Matsumoto Pearl” is a company with almost half a century of history that conducts the cultivation and the sales of pearls consistently. In Ehime, according to the regulation of the prefecture, the breeding of pearl oysters and mother oysters are to be conducted by different companies, so the process of Matsumoto pearl starts with the purchase of mother oysters.
Take meticulous care until the final process
First, using the long-standing experience of an old establishment, mother oysters of highest quality are bought and the nucleus are inserted. After letting the shell fish rest in the calm sea for about 20-25 days, they are moved offshore suitable for growing pearls. However, you don’t just leave them there and wait for the pearls to grow. Since pearl oysters breathe through the skin like human beings, the process of cleaning the surface of shellfish is to be done, removing carefully the algae and barnacles that attach themselves to the shell. After a much hard work, they are opened one by one by hand, and pearls are taken out carefully as not to damage them. Then they are sorted by their size, color, etc. and processed. This is also all manual work. And finally they are finished into products such as necklaces.
Human wisdom is brought together with the creations of nature, and lustrous jewelry is born. Here too, the cooperation between nature and human lives on.
