Overseas trading between Japan and the western world flourished in the late 1800s, with the emphasis falling particularly on Japan's natural pearl industry. However, in consequence to the increase in demand, Japan's naturally occurring pearl oysters, suffered greatly from over exploitation.
Enter a man by the name of Mikimoto Kokichi. From an early age Kokichi, the son of a noodle seller, had been fascinated by China's ancient techniques of pearl cultivation. This archaic technique consisted of placing a fragment of shell within an oyster to produce an imperfectly shaped pearl; these pearls were often used as offerings at temple shrines. This basic seeding technique formed the foundation of Mikimoto Kokichi's quest to create a perfect spherical cultured pearl, which could match Japan's naturally occurring pearls so in demand by the western world.
In July of 1893, after many years of trial and error, Mikimoto Kokichi managed to produce perfectly formed hemispherical (half round) Mabe pearls. Mikimoto cultured these Mabe pearls by using a hemispheric dome-shaped nucleus and placing it against the oyster's shell. Mikimoto then went into large scale farming of these Mabe pearls, journeying to Europe to sell and network markets for his new product.
Around the same time two Japanese men, Tokishi Nishikawa and Tatsuhei Mise, returned from Australia where they had learnt a new grafting technique from the British marine biologist William Saville-Kent. Kent's technique involved the placing of a small shell nucleus into the mantle tissue of a donor oyster, this was then grafted into another oyster, this foreign body would cause the oyster to form a pearl sack, producing nacre, covering the nucleus and thus producing a spherical pearl similar to those that occurred naturally.
Although this technique, patented as the 'Mise-Nishikawa' method in 1908, had proved itself to be successful, it only became a viable business venture when in 1916 Mikimoto Kokichi took over the patent to produce round pearls. This ground-breaking procedure marked the beginnings of Japan's pearl industry, and by 1935 Japan was producing more than 10,000,000 cultured pearls every year. Mikimoto didn't stop there; he advanced his experiments from producing cultivated Akoya pearls using the Akoya (Pinctada fucata) oyster to cultivating the silver lipped and black lipped pearl oysters.
Aside from the farming itself, the major problem facing Mikimoto Kokichi was the eradication of the negative connotation that cultivated pearls had when compared to their naturally occurring cousins. He succeeded in changing peoples perceptions by his steadfast traveling and marketing of his products at expositions and then establishing Mikimoto stores in London, Paris, New York, Shanghai, and Bombay. These stores were his showcases, offering up the latest designs and sophisticated fashions, and at the highest quality possible affordable to people aside from nobility and the higher echelons of society.
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