"Japan's Top Inventions"

The behind-the-scenes tales of hit products and creations from Japan.

This is "Japan's Top Inventions."

On today's show, pearls, the popular gemstone.

We share the story of the man who made pearls more obtainable worldwide.

Later, small iron pellets just 1.4 millimeters in diameter.

They have an unexpected use.

Here they are in action.

Stay tuned to find out what they're for!

Hello. Welcome to "Japan's Top Inventions."

I'm your host, Jason Danielson.

In the first half of the show, we take you "Behind the Creation."

Today's topic is this.

Pearls, commonly found in jewelry.

Pearls can be found inside pearl oysters,

but naturally occurring ones are extremely rare and valuable.

However, back in the late 1800s,

a Japanese man succeeded in culturing pearls through human intervention.

As a result, pearls became much more common worldwide.

It took over 30 years to successfully make a cultured pearl,

with countless setbacks along the way.

Mie Prefecture in west Japan.

The museum of a pearl company.

Inside, there is a display of French and American pearl jewelry

from the 19th century.

And near the entrance?

Here they are.

Half pearls, the same kind as the first cultured pearls.

These pearls are fused to the shell.

They aren't completely round like typical pearls, but half-spheres.

131 years ago, we succeeded in creating five semi-spherical pearls.

Following that success, we started being able to create

the spherical pearls you know now.

Thanks to the culturing process,

many more people worldwide can enjoy pearls now.

The man who succeeded in culturing pearls

was Mikimoto Kokichi, the "Pearl King."

He passed away in 1954 at age 96.

Kokichi dedicated his entire life to pearls.

Our story begins in the year 1888.

The Shima area in Mie Prefecture

was known as a place to find natural pearls.

Kokichi was 30 years old at the time, and married.

While he worked at the family "udon" restaurant,

he was also a pearl broker on the side.

He bought pearls from locals,

and sold them to merchants in the big cities.

Working at the company, which Kokichi later founded,

is Yamamura Junya.

He's in charge of the pearl farm.

Here's what he heard about those times.

The pearls came from Akoya oysters,

which lived in the bay here and around the area.

Divers probably found the pearls which he dealt in.

One day, at a fair in Tokyo, Kokichi presented his pearls.

He noticed the way some of the women stared at them.

You can search thousands of oysters without finding a natural pearl.

At the time, pearls were extremely valuable.

Only a select few possessed them.

Kokichi thought to himself,

the price of pearls would become affordable

if they could be farmed.

There's so much demand, it'd make good business.

Even small natural pearls fetched high prices on the market.

It's the only gemstone made inside a mollusk.

He wondered if you could make a pearl intentionally

through human intervention.

And so, Kokichi decided to attempt pearl cultivation.

He got to work immediately.

First, Kokichi began researching pearls.

He consulted an expert in marine biology,

and was told how oysters make pearls.

A little rock or sand gets stuck in the oyster.

A substance is secreted at that spot, which forms a pearl.

Foreign material, which becomes the nucleus,

enters the oyster by chance.

If the oyster cannot expel the material,

it begins to cover it with secretions to protect itself.

Eventually, this becomes a pearl.

Kokichi tried inserting little rocks into oysters

before returning them to sea for over a year.

But the oysters expelled the rocks or perished.

No matter how much he tried, no pearls were made.

The oysters expelled the rocks.

Where and how do you insert something

so that the oyster will accept it?

He didn't know where to begin with that.

At the start, I think it was near impossible to do on purpose.

But Kokichi didn't give up.

He took out a loan to buy more oysters.

Together with his wife, they continued to experiment.

But then one day, he was struck with misfortune,

a red tide, deadly to sea creatures.

The oysters he had invested so much in were mostly lost.

Algae grow out of control and the water loses oxygen.

The oysters die, opening up.

It must have been devastating.

That must have been the hardest time, I think.

Was pearl cultivation simply a fantasy after all?

Along the beach lay piles of dead oysters.

Culturing pearls in Akoya oysters through human intervention.

Kokichi continued to experiment with the process.

After failing again and again,

it was getting hard to see the path forward.

However, a bit of luck would provide the breakthrough he needed.

One day, just as Kokichi was losing hope...

his wife spotted something in a surviving oyster.

It was bright, round, and stuck to the shell,

a semi-spherical pearl.

There were some survivors,

and one of them had a pearl.

Finally.

Finally, some light at the end of the tunnel.

Kokichi was happy about his first pearl,

but he also had to face reality.

"This pearl was formed by chance. I don't know how it happened."

Was there a way to farm pearls in large quantities?

Kokichi resumed his experiments.

He changed the location where he inserted the nucleus,

testing over and over.

There was a lot of trial and error.

He'd change the spot, searching for the best place.

I think he was very determined to succeed.

From this, Kokichi learned some things.

One was that placing the material

between the flesh and the shell resulted in more success.

Also, speed was important.

The survival rate of the oysters increased

when the material was inserted quickly.

And finally, in 1898,

Kokichi succeeded in producing

semi-spherical pearls in large quantities.

Kokichi quickly moved to open a store in Tokyo.

Next, he began making jewelry.

At the time, many women in Japan wore kimonos.

With that in mind, Kokichi created these,

broaches for kimono belts.

Large semi-spherical pearls

were cleverly worked into a pleasing design.

On top of this, Kokichi expected that Western fashion

would become popular in Japan.

Necklaces in particular, caught his eye.

Kokichi began working on necklace designs,

but that was when he noticed something.

"These half pearls aren't ideal for a necklace.

I need spherical ones."

You can make a necklace out of half pearls if you want,

but it just wouldn't look the same.

That's why he was after the spherical pearls.

How could spherical pearls be made?

Kokichi began to investigate.

The problem was where to place the nucleus.

If he continued as he had been doing,

placing the material between the shell and flesh,

it would become a half pearl stuck to the shell.

What position would result in a spherical pearl?

Unsure where to begin, Kokichi began experimenting once again.

Kokichi and his workers spent seven years running experiments.

They were able to create spherical pearls on several occasions.

But what was the key?

After looking at each case,

they noticed something unusual in common with them.

The successes came from the workers

who weren't as skilled at inserting the nucleus.

Those less-skilled workers

weren't able to insert the material the regular way.

Perhaps Kokichi saw that and got a hint about what to do.

What exactly was the difference

with what the less-skilled workers were doing?

The regular way was to avoid hurting the oyster

and inserting the nucleus gently.

But the less-skilled workers

had torn the membrane of the outer mantle

as they inserted the nucleus.

Based on this difference,

the experiments continued for another 13 years.

Eventually, they tried this method.

A piece of mantle from another oyster was cut out.

The nucleus was wrapped in that mantle,

and inserted into the gonad of the oyster.

Would this produce a true spherical pearl?

With bated breath, the oyster was opened up.

There it was. A large, spherical pearl.

They raised those oysters.

They were like their children.

And in that final moment, when the pearl is extracted,

this beautiful, shining object appears.

There aren't any words for it.

You could say it's the fruit of all that labor.

They were probably overjoyed during that moment.

That was how cultured pearl necklaces

became available around the world.

Later, while in the United States for a tour,

Kokichi had the chance to visit a certain someone's residence,

the famed inventor, Thomas Edison.

When presented a cultured pearl, Edison said this.

"It is one of the wonders of the world

that you were able to culture pearls."

The cultured pearls were praised even by Thomas Edison.

How do experts view this invention?

We're joined by Akamatsu Shigeru to learn more.

Welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me.

How do you view Mikimoto Kokichi's achievements?

I think his biggest achievement was starting and spreading

the cultured pearl industry worldwide.

Pearls happened to appear in a part of an oyster,

and he did a lot of research there.

He innovated with this pearl cultivation technology.

With natural pearls,

it was mostly European royalty and nobility who had them.

But when cultured pearls appeared,

many people in the world could own them.

I think Kokichi was a genius

for coming up with that business concept.

Thomas Edison once said to Kokichi

that his process was "one of the wonders of the world."

What do you think made Edison say that?

You don't get a pearl simply by inserting something into an oyster.

Something called a pearl sac needs to form around the nucleus,

and the pearl takes shape in there.

If that pearl sac doesn't form, you can't get a pearl.

Nobody was able to artificially cause that pearl sac to appear.

Edison had stated that diamonds and pearls

couldn't be created by humans,

so when presented with something he had said was impossible,

well, I guess it must have been quite a surprise.

It's been 130 years since pearl cultivation was invented.

How has the process advanced to today?

Some years ago, the University of Tokyo played

a central role in completing genome sequencing

of Akoya oysters for the first time in the world.

It isn't desirable for pearls to have a yellowish hue.

They were able to analyze what gene causes that yellow color,

and use oysters without that gene instead.

By doing that, they were able to significantly reduce

the occurrence of yellow pearls during the farming process.

Instead of relying on experience or intuition,

they understood the science and biology.

I think that's something very impressive.

Thank you for your time. Great speaking with you.

Thank you.

Top Niche Creations.

Our next segment is "Top Niche Creations."

Today we're looking at this.

It's a metal component that's about 1 meter wide, with a boxy shape.

This is actually a key component

of something very important in our daily lives.

Just what is it? We sent our reporter to find out.

Hello everyone, Cyrus Nozomu Sethna here.

Today, I am in Aichi Prefecture.

The company we're visiting is right over here.

Come and follow me!

I'm at an equipment manufacturer that employs around 4,000 workers.

- Good afternoon.
- Hello.

My guide today is engineer Ono Tsuyoshi.

The first stop is a factory floor.

Straight away, I'm greeted with a large boxy component

and smaller ones with complicated shapes.

What are these?

So what is this here?

This is the engine of a truck.

And these look similar.

Yes, these parts attach to the engine.

I see.

All sorts of automobile parts are on display,

and they all have very elaborate shapes.

But all of them can be readily mass-produced

using a machine that the company makes.

Just what kind of machine is it? I was given a special look.

- Oh, wow.
- Here it is.

- It's huge!
- Yeah.

Very quiet for a big machine.

It's off right now, but I'll turn it on in a moment.

Time to see it in action.

The machine pressed down twice with great strength.

- That didn't take long.
- Right.

Very quick.

And the result of the pressing?

You can see the shapes of the components in it.

This is actually a mold for a part, made out of compacted sand.

Oh, it's hard!

Yes, solid.

Didn't think sand could get like this.

Right. The sand is blended with other things to make this mold.

The mold is used to create...

this engine component.

Even though the shape is complex, using a mold,

you can easily make the same thing over and over again.

To learn more, I visited the company's demonstration area.

They're using this mascot's pattern in a wooden box

and some sand.

First, sand is placed in the box...

and pressed down evenly.

Both top and bottom halves are filled,

then layered together.

Molten metal is then poured into the hole at the top.

After cooling for 5 minutes,

the sand is brushed off.

I can see it.

Voila.

This process is actually a form of manufacturing called "casting."

The machine I saw before is part of a system

which compacts sand to make molds for casting.

The system can make precise molds for all kinds of complex shapes.

It's used all over the world.

It's impressive all the fine shapes you can make with this.

Yes. When automobiles came to be mass-produced,

cast components were needed,

so we developed this automatic system for molds.

In the past, people compacted the molds by hand.

But in response to customer needs,

we made a system which can make a stronger, more uniform mold.

The company is known around the world for its casting systems.

It was founded in 1934.

It created the first sand molding machine for casting in Japan.

This allowed for cast components to be mass-produced.

What helped the company flourish was its relationship

with the automobile industry,

including the world's largest car manufacturer

located in the same prefecture.

The manufacturers needed many cast components like engine parts.

Various casting systems were developed,

aiding the spread of Japanese automobiles overseas.

The company's casting systems are also used outside of automobiles,

from garden chairs,

to metal gates,

to mailboxes.

Also, pans, hot plates and dumbbells.

Even faucets.

All of these objects make use of their systems.

Currently, the company is putting effort

into their surface treatment technology.

This is a casting right out of the mold.

It still has sand left on it.

I see.

The casting, which is taken out of the mold,

is covered in the used-up sand.

The company has developed a way to clean this material off.

People used to brush it off themselves.

That was tough work and a bit ineffective.

It's iron, so you need something hard.

Fight iron with iron.

What's used now are these 1.4mm-diameter iron pellets.

How do these clean the metal casting?

Right. We use this machine to blast the casting

with pellets at high speeds to clean it off.

This is a computer simulation of what happens inside the machine.

Wheels spin and fling the pellets at the casting at high speeds.

The result?

The sand is totally removed.

Excess metal is also taken off.

And the dull surfaces are given a shiny finish.

We can do more than remove sand.

As needed, we can change the material or size of the pellets too.

You've improved it.

Yes. We're developing it to handle finer

and more complex operations.

Very handy.

From automobile components to household items,

the company continues to support metal casting processes.

They're currently applying their surface treatment technology in a new area,

electronic components for smartphones and computers.

By using smaller abrasive particles,

they're able to etch patterns which are one-fiftieth

of a millimeter thin onto electronic components.

They're making machines for both casting

and advanced electronics. Wow!

That's all for this episode of "Japan's Top Inventions."

We'll leave you with more about the cultured pearls

from the first half of the show.

See you next time! And Stay Inventive.

(In 1893, Mikimoto Kokichi succeeded in culturing pearls.)

(He opened a store in Tokyo which still operates today.)

(Inside are many necklaces full of large pearls.)

(The house where he spent his latter years

in his native Mie Prefecture still stands.)

(The waters where he experimented can be seen from the windows.)

(Yamamura supervises the oyster farm.

He recalls Kokichi's words for young people.)

Kokichi said that hopeful people carry something with them that shines.

And at the time, despite all the challenges,

he certainly never gave up hope.

Just like how a pearl shines so brightly,

I like to think that Kokichi himself was shining.