Mikimoto Kokichi
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Kokichi Mikimoto (御木本 幸吉 Mikimoto Kōkichi, March 10, 1858 – September 21, 1954) was the Japanese inventor of the cultured pearl.
Born as the first son of a udon shop owner in Toba, Mie prefecture (then called Shima Province), he left school at the age of 13 and sold vegetables to support his family. Seeing the pearl divers of Ise unloading their treasures at the shore in his childhood started the fascination with pearls.
In 1888 Mikimoto obtained a loan to start his first pearl farm at the Shinmei inlet in Shima province 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. Just before his death, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the First Class. On September 21, 1954, Kokichi Mikimoto died at the age of 96. Posthumously he was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Sacred Treasure.