Rare Japanese Kasumi and Akoya Pearl Earrings

These earrings feature purple Japanese Kasumi pearls and blue grey irradiated Japanese Akoya pearls with sterling silver accent beads, on non-tarnish stainless steel wire and lever backs.

The pearls measure 7.8 and 12.8 mm, and the earrings are 1 3/4" in total length.

US dime (18 mm) shown for scale. Pearl info below.

Pearls are one of the most beloved gems, used for millennia in jewelry and decoration, and are the only gems grown inside a living organism. The first recorded mention of pearls is 7,500 years old. They are one of a few organic gemstones, including ivory, amber, and coral.

Pearls are one of the birthstones of June, along with color-changing alexandrite, and moonstone. It is also the 3rd and 30th wedding anniversary gem.

Kasumi pearls are freshwater pearls cultivated in Lake Kasumi-ga-Ura in Japan, which roughly translates to "the body of water beyond the mist". They are known for their oil-slick luster along with the natural and vibrant colors in shades of white, pink, peach, cream, orange, gold, bronze, green, blue, and purple. They often have a rippled or hammered surface which is not only a sign of a healthy oyster, but adds a unique and wild beauty. Japan Kasumi pearls are cultivated in a hybrid freshwater mussel, which is a cross of the Hyriopsis cumingii and Hyriopsis schlegelii species. Due to environmental factors in the 1980s, production stopped, but since the 1990s, a small number of farmers, often working alone, have produced very small quantities of these special pearls. In 2024, Kiyoshi Yoneguchi is the only man producing freshwater pearls in Japan.

The akoya pearl is a saltwater cultured pearl from the akoya oyster (Pinctada fucata martensii) which thrives in the cold saltwater of the Pacific Ocean amid the secluded bays off the coast of Japan. It was the first pearl to be cultivated in the late 19th century and successfully marketed by Mikimoto, a name which is now synonymous with the Akoya pearl, though Mikimoto wasn't the first and only person experimenting with pearl cultivation. Cultured pearls revolutionized the world of fine jewelry, making pearls more readily available to buyers of all types and budgets. Before cultured pearls, only natural pearls had been available, so the supply was severely limited and often reserved for royalty. By the 1920s, Mikimoto's cultured pearl business was a commercial success. The akoya oyster is the smallest commercially farmed, pearl-producing oyster, averaging 3-5 inches in diameter, so the pearls produced tend to be on the smaller side. Akoya are considered to be the classic pearl used for necklaces and other pearl jewelry, with perfect round shapes, bright mirror-like luster and neutral colors.

Pearl nacre is made of layers of mineral platelets, stacked like bricks and held together with proteins, which reflect and refract light to create iridescence, depth, and color. Each crystalline platelet acts like a miniature prism, breaking up the beam of white light into a rainbow. Pearl irradiation uses Cobalt-60 to permanently turn a pearl nucleus black post-harvest, which changes the color the pearl refracts, giving an irradiated pearl a darker, silvery, or bluish color. Dye is not a part of the process, as you can still see the iridescence in the nacre, which pearl dyeing removes. Dye creates a pearl without iridescence and depth, giving a pearl a flat, solid surface layer.