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The original Japanese cultured pearls, known as akoya pearls, are produced by a species of small pearl oyster, Pinctada fucata, which is no bigger than 6 to 8 cm in size, hence akoya pearls larger than 10 mm in diameter are extremely rare and highly priced. Today, a hybrid mollusk is used in both Japan and China in the production of akoya pearls.
Pinctada fucata, the Akoya pearl oyster (阿古屋貝), is a species of marine bivalve mollusk in the family Pteriidae, the pearl oysters. Some authorities classify this oyster as Pinctada fucata martensii (Gould, 1850). [1] It is native to shallow waters in the Indo-Pacific region and is used in the culture of pearls.
The original Japanese cultured pearls, known as akoya pearls, are produced by a species of small pearl oyster, Pinctada fucata martensii, which is no bigger than 6 to 8 cm (2.4 to 3.1 in) in size, hence akoya pearls larger than 10 mm in diameter are extremely rare and highly priced. Today, a hybrid mollusk is used in both Japan and China in the ...
Black South Sea pearls, or Tahitian pearls come from the black-lip oyster; gold and silver South Sea pearls from the gold-lip and silver-lip oysters; and Akoya cultured pearls from Pinctada fucata martensii, the Akoya pearl oyster. Pearls are also obtained in commercial quantities from some species of the closely related winged oyster genus Pteria.
A Japanese word also meaning "poppy" (ケシ, 芥子), it is used in Japanese for all pearls that grew without a nucleus. Originally, keshi pearls referred to those pearls formed when a bead nucleus was rejected. More recently, keshi has been used to refer to second harvest pearls and even to freshwater non-nucleated pearls.
After WWII the Japanese Akoya pearl industry was rebuilt in Japan, and exports of Japanese Akoya Cultured pearls boomed to international markets. Similarly, post World War II, the Australian mother-of-pearl shell industry also boomed as renewed demand ensured record prices for mother-of-pearl buttons right through to the mid-1950s.