Pearl-Farming in Japan

choi

Ming Liu, Farming Japan's Precious Akoya Pearls. CNN, Jan 1, 2019.
https://www.cnn.com/style/articl ... a-pearls/index.html

Note:
(a) "Off the coast of Japan's verdant Saikai National Park 西海国立公園, the Kujūkushima 九十九島 Islands * * * Their name literally translates as '99 islands,' though there are over 200 of them, ranging from tiny uninhabited isles to the 650-resident Kuroshima 黒島 ('Black Island').  
The archipelago's beauty stretches far out to sea, but it also runs deep: This is rich pearl farming territory.  Japanese jewelry house Tasaki has operated a pearl farm here for over 70 years. It cultivates around one million Akoya oysters a year, in tens of thousands of nets resting just below the water's surface."
(i) SaiKai National Park. Natural Parks Foundation 自然公園財団 (directly under 日本の環境省), undated
https://www2.bes.or.jp/english/parks/saikai.html
(designated in 1955)
, where land is colored pale yellow. In the northeastern corner of the map, "Kujukushima Isls" is off the coast of Kita-matsu-ura Penninsula 北松浦半島 between Cities of Sasebo 佐世保(市) and Hirado 平戸(市), Nagashima Prefecture in yūshū 九州.

There is 北松浦半島, and 東松浦半島 to its northeast -- but no 南 or 西 松浦半島.
(ii) Founded in 1954 by Shun-saku TASAKI 田崎 俊作, TASAKI & Co, Ltd (Japanese: 株式会社TASAKI) is based in Kobe.
(iii) Akoya oyster  アコヤガイ
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/アコヤガイ
(阿古屋貝、学名 Pinctada fucata martensii; 「真珠貝」という別名もよく知られている; 貝殻は平たい半円形で、中央部は厚い; 太平洋とインド洋の熱帯・亜熱帯の海に広く分布し、日本でも房総半島以南に分布する; section 5 語源:
"阿古屋は現在の愛知県阿久比町の古い地名で、この辺りで採れた真珠を阿古屋珠（あこやだま）と呼んだことから")

my rough translation: 別名: 真珠貝; shell is flat and semicircular, a bit thicker in the center * * * origin of name: Akoya 阿古屋 is the ancient name of the present-day Agu-i-chō, A-i-chi Prefecture 愛知県阿久比町, and the pearls collected nearby was called 阿古屋珠

The kanji 貝 has Japanese pronunciation "ka-i" and Chinese pronunciation "ba-i." (Japanese language does not have diphthongs. Also, "ka-i" is softened to "ga-i" due to its position that is not at the beginning of the compound word.)

The en.wikipedia.org has a page for "Pinctada fucata" which states, "Pinctada fucata, the Akoya pearl oyster, is a species of marine bivalve mollusk * * * is native to the Indo-Pacific region. Its range includes the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and coastal waters of India, China, Korea, Japan, and the Western Pacific Ocean."  However, it does not explain etymology of Akoya.

(b) "Pearl farming first emerged in Japan at the turn of the 20th century. Kōkichi MIKIMOTO 御木本 幸吉, the son of a noodle [specifically: udon] shop owner, invented cultured pearls by mimicking how they form in nature.  Pearls occur naturally when an outside agent -- sand or a bone fragment, for instance -- becomes lodged inside a mollusk. The creatures secrete nacre (commonly known as mother-of-pearl) * * * Mikimoto's idea was simply to artificially insert 'nuclei' into growing oysters. Female freedivers (known as 'ama' 海女) would dive down to collect the oysters, before returning them to the seabed after the outside agents were inserted.  Mikimoto patented his discovery in 1896 -- and although oysters are now farmed closer to the water's surface, his method remains in use today."

The "Kō" and "kichi" are, respectively, Chinese pronunciations of kanji 幸 and 吉.