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Ise-Shima NP, Mie
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On 11 July 1893, Ume, Kokichi Mikimoto’s wife, found 5 half-round pearls as they opened Akoya oysters raised in bamboo baskets here. The breakthrough came before the later success with round pearls.
In 1936, Mikimoto held a memorial for Akoya oysters lost in pearl farming: 1.5 million shells formed a 5 m mound, and about 10,000 people crossed a 180 m temporary bridge made from pearl-farm floats to attend.
The island restaurant, Awako, carries the name of Mikimoto’s family udon shop. It also serves Akoya-oyster adductor muscles year-round—a local delicacy that usually reaches markets only in winter.
Before modern equipment, ama divers gathered Akoya oysters, returned nucleated shells to the seabed and moved them to safety ahead of red tides or typhoons. The island’s white-costume demonstrations honor their crucial work.
Mikimoto took this jewel to the 1939 New York World’s Fair as U.S.–Japan relations worsened: it depicts the Liberty Bell with 12,250 pearls and 366 diamonds, and a blue pearl marks the real bell’s famous crack.
Yaguruma, shown at the 1937 Paris Exposition, converts into 12 kinds of jewelry with a tiny screwdriver. Lost from view after the fair, it resurfaced at a New York auction in 1989 and returned to Japan.
Mikimoto also supported the campaign to protect Ise-Shima’s scenery as a national park. The park was designated in 1946, linking this island’s pearl story to the wider landscape it helped promote.
Nucleating an Akoya oyster is no guarantee of a gem: some oysters die before harvest, and only about 5% produce high-quality pearls. The sparkling displays here begin with a remarkably uncertain process.
Pearls are still traded using the Japanese unit momme: 1 momme equals 3.75 g. It’s a small but lasting sign of how pearl culture from places like Toba helped shape an international industry.
Until 1970, visitors crossed to the island by a ferry called Shinju-go. The 62.84 m Pearl Bridge replaced it, turning the final leg of a visit into a walk over Toba Bay.
