Today the term Biwa Pearls is used to describe all stick or irregularly shaped pearls. But did you know that there was a time that it was illegal to refer to pearls as “Biwa Pearls” unless they originated from Lake Biwa in Japan?

Lake Biwa, located NE of Kyoto is an ancient lake, almost 4 million years old, formed by the same earthquake that created Mount Fuji. It is one of the most important lakes on earth in terms of its history and bio-diversity.

In 1914 Japanese pearl farmers began culturing freshwater pearls using mussels native to Lake Biwa. The mussels were seeded with a mother of pearl chip, instead of a bead. It took some 3 years to produce pearls for harvest. The large mussels produced more than one pearl and they could be re-used, often the 1st harvest of small pearls was re-inserted to produce larger pearls.

The first commercial crops of pearls reached the world market in the 1930s in a range of colors and shapes not previously seen by jewelers. Production peaked in the early 1970s, when the lake supplied almost all of the world’s freshwater pearls. Biwa pearls were usually irregular in shape (because they were non-nucleated or no bead in them) but had excellent color and luster.

Since then pollution from farms, industries and population growth has caused the virtual extinction of this industry. Various environmental laws enacted in the 80s control pollution by establishing water quality standards to help protect the over 1000 species of plants and animals that live in this lake, as well as over 50,000 migrating water birds that use it each year. In order to protect the pearl producing mussel, a small population has been transferred to and established in a lake west of Tokyo. Today Japan’s freshwater pearl industry takes second place to China.

Regina Santerre of Sundance Gems

http://www.rubylane.com/shops/sundancegems