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Kokichi Mikimoto (January 25, 1858 - September 21, 1954) is the Japanese
inventor of the cultured pearl.
Born as the first son of a noodle shop owner in Toba, Mie prefecture he
left school at the age of 13 selling vegetables to support the family.
Seeing the pearl divers of Ise unloading their treasures at the shore in his
childhood started the fascination with pearls. In 1888 he obtained a loan to
start his first pearl farm at the Shinmei inlet in Shima province (now Mie
prefecture) together with his wife and partner Ume. On July 11, 1893, after
many failures and near bankruptcy, the first cultivated pearl was obtained.
It took another 12 years to create completely spherical pearls that were
indistinguishable from natural ones. In 1899 the first Mikimoto pearl shop
was opened in the fashionable Ginza district of Tokyo. The Mikimoto empire
expanded internationally soon thereafter. In September 1954, Kokichi
Mikimoto died at the age of 96. Posthumously he was awarded the Grand Cordon
of the Order of Sacred Treasure.
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