Statue of Mikimoto Kokichi at Mikimoto Pearl Island (2 April 2007)
Mikimoto Pearl Island is a small island in the city of Toba in Mie Prefecture, Japan. It was here in 1893 that Mikimoto Kokichi first created cultured pearls. At that time, the island was called Ojima.
With the success of pearl cultivation, the Mikimoto Pearl Company became one of the treasured cultural institutions of Japan. The company soon took over the entire island for its pearl cultivation. Since 1951, the island is used mainly as a leisure island to showcase the activities of the Mikimoto Pearl Company. It is connected to the mainland via a pedestrian bridge.
There is a Mikimoto Pearl Museum on the island that provides an explanation about cultured pearls and the history of the Mikimoto company. In the sea, there are demonstrations by ama divers of how pearl oysters are harvested. And as would be expected, there is a gift shop where visitors can purchase Mikimoto pearls.
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About this website
Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.
While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.