Mikimoto pearls and noodle making

       What do cultured pearls and noodle making have in common? Not much, unless you draw the connection between Kokichi Mikimoto and his job as a noodle maker and his involvement in cultured pearls.

       Mikimoto was a noodle maker in his father’s noodle shop, when he first became interested in pearls.

       Involvement, yes. Invention, no. Although most people unwittingly credit Mikimoto with the invention of pearl culture, he actually had more to do with promotion of cultured pearls.

       Actually, many people through the ages had tried their hand at cultivating pearls. The Chinese produced cultured blister pearls at least 800 years before Mikimoto was born.

       Mikimoto tried his hand at culturing pearls around the 1890’s, and he succeeded at making oysters produce cultured blister pearls; however, two of his Japanese contemporaries had come up with whole round cultured pearls. Through a combination of their efforts, Mikimoto’s pearl business grew

       Mikimoto’s greatest successes were in marketing the cultured pearls and causing cultured pearls to be accepted in a market that only knew natural pearls up until that time. 

       Mikimoto died four years short of 100 years old in 1954. He left behind a legacy that has become the cultured pearl of today.