Problems and prospects of pearl culture in India

When Kokichi Mikimoto took the small step forward in 1893 by producing a few blister pearls in the Japanese pearl oyster Pinctada martensii (= P. fucata) at the coastal village of Jinmiyonmura on Ago Bay, a new industry of pearl culture was bom. As he was building up a small-scale industry, a few marine scientists and technicians got themselves interested in it and, in 1907, Tokichi Nishikawa produced the first spherical cultured pearl in the oyster. Subsequently, the credibility of cultured pearl as jewel was established in the 1920s and was followed by a boom of pearl culture industry with a master touch of Mikimoto and several other industrialists who joined the bandwagon. After World War 11, pearl culture industry was established in Australia, Philippines, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, all with Japanese collaboration