THE LURE OF THE SOUTH SEAS

The First Hundred Years

by Andy Muller

As the Akoya pearl industry developed in Japan, the rest of the world was beckoning. As early as 1915, the Japanese, motivated by their initial success in culturing Akoya pearls, also considered the larger oysters found in the tropical waters of the South Seas for pearl cultivation. 

Doctors Sukeo and Masayo Fujita, two scientific and technical masterminds in the Japanese Akoya pearl industry, led the charge, and a familiar corporate name was behind them. It was none other than Mitsubishi Goshi-Gaisha, better known today as Mitsubishi Corporation. 

In 1916, Sukeo Fujita, encouraged and sponsored by Baron Iwasaki of Mitsubishi, started his daring adventure to the South Seas in search of a suitable site for pearl cul— tivation. He visited the Sulu Sea and Mindanao in the Philippines, Thursday Island in the northeastern tip of Queensland in Australia, Broome in the northern part of Western Australia, Aru Island in the south of Indonesia’s Molucca province, Buton* in the southeastern part of Celebes (Sulawesi) in Indonesia, as well as the Andaman Islands, India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Fujita would finally return to Japan in 1918. 

During his visit to Zamboanga in the Philippines in 1916, Fujita started a base camp for a pearl farm. But further developments were aborted, mainly because of serious security problems. Undaunted, Fujita moved on. He finally settled in Buton in the Celebes which was under Dutch administration, and in 1920 he obtained a license from the government, opened the Buton Pearl Cultivation Laboratory and started a series of experiments with the white-lipped pearl oyster Pinctada maxima fished in the Arafura Sea and transported to Buton by luggers. 

By 1924, Fujita was successfully culturing half-pearls, and in 1928 he harvested the first round South Sea pearls. To everyone’s amazement, except perhaps Fujita’s, these were large in size and had thick nacreous coatings. 

The majority of the pearls produced at Buton between 1928 and 1938 were 8mm to 10mm in size, with 12mm being the rare exception. Recalling that during the same period Akoya pearls cultured in Japan had an average size of 3mm to 4mm, there is little wonder that these first South Sea pearls created quite a sensation. 

The Buton project was financed and managed by Mitsubishi. From 1928 to 1932, it produced from 8,000 to 10,000 pearls a year. Incorporated in 1932 as “Nanyo Shinju KK7 it continued to prosper. From 1935 to 1938, a total of approximately

36,000 pearls were produced, with the peak year in 1936 when the harvest was over 5,000 momme. When World War II broke out, it was requisitioned by the Dutch government, but the oysters remained at the site until 1943. Dr. Fujita never saw this later development. In 1931, he went to the USA and Europe to promote South Sea pearls, popularly referred to at that time as “Mitsubishi Pearls:’ But he fell ill during his trip and died soon after his return to Japan in the same year.

His legacy, however, survives; Fujita had wisely trained five Japanese pearl oyster technicians to carry on, and some of these men would be instrumental in developing the industry after World War II in Indonesia, Australia and Burma. It would be disingenuous to think, however, that Fujita-Mitsubishi was the only act in town. How could master marketer K. Mikimoto fail to sniff the possibilities of South Sea pearl culture? He couldn’t and he didn’t. As early as 1920, Mikimoto’s staff did research on Palau and established an experimental pearl farm in 1922.After experimenting with the readily available black-lipped oyster Pinctada margaritifera, Mikirnoto’s over-the-horizon vision quickly focused on white-lipped oysters, and without delay he brought them in from the Arafura Sea. Also, in 1935 and 1936, Akoya oysters were shipped from Japan.

But vision — and ambition — just wasn’t enough. Mikimoto’s experiments w~i black-lipped pearl oysters were quite successful, but those carried out with white-lipped pearl oysters ended in failure. Despite this, Palau was a logical choice for the expansion of the Japanese p~ I industry. At the time, it was a territory under Japanese mandate. In 1936, ~ Shinju KK, encouraged by their success at Buton, also began pearl culture operations on Palau, followed in 1937 by the Horiguchi Pearl Trading Co. But neither attained high degree of success. Mikimoto closed down in 1940, and the others ceased operations two years later when Palau was recaptured by the American Forces.

But these weren’t the only Japanese prewar efforts to culture South Sea pearls. ~. the Ryukyu Islands near Okinawa, the native black-lipped pearl oyster was u~J pearl cultivation with considerable success for over two decades until the outbreak of World War II.

Other prewar attempts on record never exceeded the experimental stage and had no commercial success. They included those of a Japanese (Kashiwagi) in Zamboanga in the Philippines in the 1930s using the gold-lipped Pinctada maxima oyster, and ~se of another Japanese man by the name of Saeki who also experimented on Palau oetween 1937 and 1941. Also, on the island of Apataki near Tahiti in French Polynesia,

Frenchmen Robert Hervé used the black-lipped pearl oyster during his unsuccessful experiments in the early 1930s.

AND THEN THE WAR ENDED

World War II obliterated all South Sea pearl cultivation. It remained dormant until 1950, at which time little ripples of activity, not all successful, could be detected once again on the beckoning surface of the South Seas.

On January 12 1954, the legendary K. Takashima established the “South Sea Pearl Company”, the same year that Kokichi Mikimoto passed away.

Takashima, well aware of Mitsubishi’s prewar success, first tried to establish himself at Buton. But Indonesia, in the meanwhile, had gained its independence and refused the company permission to operate. Undeterred, Takashima established a joint venture with the Burma Pearl Fishing and Culture Syndicate in September 1954. The match, however, was challenged and negotiations required the involvement of both governments.

The farm site was on Malcolm Island in the Mergui Archipelago and it provided excellent conditions. Regular harvests began in 1957. Mr. Takashima’s pearls from Larma created an international sensation. They were considered the worlds finest, were the most sought after and fetched the highest prices.

But like many good things, the glory days came to an abrupt end. In 1962, a coup d’etat rocketed the Burmese military into power, and in August of the following year the so-called “Revolutionary Government of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma” confiscated Takashima’s farm and the Japanese were unceremoniously booted out.

Under the firm but unskilled fist of the Burmese, the country’s pearl cultivation slowly deteriorated. By the 1980s, quantity was low and quality was substandard. Once considered the finest in the world, Burma’s pearls lost their glow. (In 1997, it has been reported, the Burmese government formed a new joint-venture with a Japanese company. Whether it will succeed or not remains to be seen.)

The disaster in Burma took its toll and Takashima never fully recovered. In 1964, he launched another venture in the Philippines, “Zamboanga Pearl Farms Inc.” But when the host government insisted on the transfer of pearl oyster seeding technology, trouble began anew. The situation went from poor to bad because of an acute lack of oysters, partially due to what seemed to be only half hearted cooperation from the native shell divers. Things further deteriorated because of poor security. The project was never successful, nor was Takashima’s other pearling venture in Thailand. Begun in 1979, it struggled for years and was finally closed down in 1995.

When Takashima ventured into Burma, another Japanese, Tokuichi Kuribayashi, decided to focus on Australia for pearl cultivation. Kuribayashi was the president of the Pearl Shell Fishing Co. which had been active fishing shells (and natural pearls) along Australia’s northern coast before the war. In 1953, his fleet was reorganised and ready to sail. Kuribayashi knew the coast, the sea and the shells that were there.

But the wounds of World War II were deep and unhealed, and the Australians were not receptive to Japanese investments. Kuribayashi knew this, and so he decided to seek help. He turned to an old trading partner, Allan Gerdau of The Otto Gerdau Co. with headquarters on Wall Street in New York. Allan Gerdau assisted him in joining forces with Keith Dureau of Broome, Western Australia. The Otto Gerdau Co. at the time was the largest buyer and distributor of mother-of-pearl shells, a company that had traded in and financed pearl shell fishing from Thursday Island to Broome since the turn of the century.

A seasoned technician by the name of Iwaki, who had worked in Buton before uie war, was dispatched to Australia to search for a suitable pearl farming site. After weeks of exploration along the entire northern coast, Iwaki decided on a remote bay nc~_ Augustus Island, 400 km northeast of Broome. The place was named Kuri Bay, at~r Mr. Kuribayashi. • ..

Two companies were formed: Pearls Pty., Ltd. in Australia, or PPL as it is com¬monly known, and Nippo Pearl Co., Ltd. in Tokyo. The Australian side had three shareholders: Allan Gerdau, Brown & Dureau, and Sam Male. With Brown & Dureau providing the administration structure, the luggers of Sam Male went to sea and fished for oysters pending the arrival of Japanese technical experts.

They didn’t have to wait long. Nippo Pearl Co. sent 14 technicians on the mother ship Otama Maru which anchored in Kuri Bay on July 4th, 1956. Round pearl cultivation commenced immediately and the first harvest of 651 pieces totalling 437.68 momme was produced in June 1958.

THE AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURE

In the 1960s, two more pearl companies took up the challenge and opened farms in Western Australia. One was Aif Morgan who, together with his son Richard, obtained a pearl lease first at Port Smith and later in the Montebello Islands near the Exmouth Gulf. The other was Dean Brown who, with his sons Lyndon and Bruce, chose a site at Cygnet Bay in King Sound north of Broome.

Both started with virtually nothing, nor did they benefit from any financial, technical or scientific support. Only hard work and fierce determination to succeed kept them going, despite extremely difficult circumstances. These pioneers, adventurers and pearlers persisted for almost two decades, and when the 1980s rolled around, they were finally able to reap the well-deserved rewards of their work.

In the late 1960s, Paspaley was already well underway, and during the 1970s other farms in the rapidly emerging Western Australian pearling industry began to operate. They included Arrow, Michael Kailis (Broome Pearls), and Bruce Farley (Roebuck Deep Pearls).

From the humble beginnings of the first round pearl harvest at Kuri Bay in 1958, annual Western Australia production reached 40 kan in 1984. By 1997, production was between 410 and 430 kan, or approximately 1,575 kg, with an estimated value of A$200 million.

            To be sure, other parts of Australia also had pearling operations. In the Northern Territory and on and around Thursday Island in Queensland, companies, mostly from Japan, tried their luck and set up operations in the 1970s and 1980s. Among the better known names are Kakuda, Nishin, Kyokko, Hamaguchi and Horiguchi. But Western Australia was, and still is, the source of well over 90% of Australia’s total pearl production.

The Australian Pearling Industry is well organized and wisely controlled. Following a major review of the industry in 1988 in Western Australia, a total of 16 license holders share an annual shell quota of 577,000 wild oysters fished in the open seas, plus an additional 350,000 oysters propagated in hatcheries. In 1997, these 350,000 “hatchery options” were still not fully utilized.

Paspaley purchased The Otto Gerdau Co. in October 1989, and with it, Pearls Pty., Ltd. Today, Paspaley is by far the largest cultivator of South Sea pearls with a market share of well over 50%.

A sign of the times, this old pearl lugger, originally called the “Voltaire~’ worked the southern pearling grounds of Exmouth from the port of Onslow from the 1950s to the 1980s. She now runs tourists out of Broome under the name “Cornelius.” Practically all traditional luggers have meanwhile been withdrawn from service, thus ending the heady days when over 400 of them operated out of Broome.

Other prewar attempts on record never exceeded the experimental stage and had no commercial success. They included those of a Japanese (Kashiwagi) in Zamboanga in the Philippines in the 1930s using the gold-lipped Pinctada maxima oyster, and those of another Japanese man by the name of Saeki who also experimented on Palau between 1937 and 1941. Also, on the island of Apataki near Tahiti in French Polynesia, the Frenchmen Robert Hervé used the black-lipped pearl oyster during his unsuccessful experiments in the early 1930s. 

 This article is from  Cultured Pearls - The First Hundred Years by Andy Muller. We met with Andy for lunch and he gave us permission to share this information with you.

The book is available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Japanese, and can be ordered online at www.watchprint.com,