Outlet Pearls. Rare Biwa Pearls. High Luster 3.5x5 mm, 85 loose pearls

Rare Biwa Pearls From Japan.

Vintage New Never used.

85 Pearls

Aprox size
5mm X 3.5mm thick, give or take.

Aprox 15.5” if strung.

You will receive the pearls in these pictures, please look closely before you purchase.

Freshwater cultured Pearls from Japan.

These are not your fast cultured Chinese Pearls on today's market, these pearls are vintage, grown with the highest Japanese standards for cultured pearls to give them the highest luster and thickest nacre.

Biwa Characteristics.
Kokichi Mikimoto is the man most credited with perfecting the techniques of freshwater pearl culturing. He and his associates, experimenting at Lake Biwa, seeded mussels only with soft mantle tissue. This resulted in an all-nacre pearl of good luster and unusual shape—the rice-grain shape was typical. Biwa pearls also emerged in previously unseen colors, and they could be mass-produced. Technicians could plant many bits of mantle tissue in one mussel, and harvest 15 or 20 small pearls from each. From the 1930s on, Biwa set the standard for freshwater cultured pearl quality, and made pearls more affordable than they had ever been.

Biwa's Decline
Biwa pearls came on the market just when the natural, saltwater pearl fishing industry was going into serious decline. Overfishing and pollution had damaged mollusk beds, especially in the Persian Gulf. By the 1930s, the oil industry there also tempted workers outlet away from the great dangers of pearl diving to safer jobs on land. In less than 50 years, however, Biwa pearl production also declined, thanks to similar factors—pollution at Lake Biwa and fresh competition from abroad, especially China.

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