Perfectly round, with a fine lustre; Japanese pearls are known worldwide for their high quality. However in recent years, the industry has been hobbled by foreign competition and mass oyster die-offs. Ehime prefecture’s Uwajima is a center of cultivated pearl production. This week, we spoke to Shinji Matsumoto about his pearl business and the importance of family ties.
Interviewed by Takafumi Suzuki
Translated by Claire Tanaka
There sure are a lot of pearl companies in Uwajima. When was Matsumoto Pearl founded?
This company was started about forty years ago. My father founded it, and partway through my older brother took it over.
Why are there so many pearl companies in Uwajima?
The mountains are quite high in Uwajima. That means the sea is also quite deep here. When the sea is deep like this, the difference in water temperature between the seasons is quite dramatic, and that helps to make good pearls. There were about seven hundred pearl cultivation companies here at one time. Now there are only about two hundred. They all got done in by foreign competition and the oysters dying in huge masses.
Have you always been in the pearling industry?
Yes. Back then, my father and older brother were in charge of the cultivation business. At that time, it was different from now. You could sell as much as you could make. So some people did harmful dense cultivation. Because of that, the country would only give one (cultivation) license to each household. I decided that if I couldn’t go into cultivation then I would make a new business and sell processed pearls.
So now you’ve taken over the business and you do cultivation, processing, wholesale, and sales?
Yes. My brother died suddenly, and for a while a relative was running the company, but he was new to the business and it didn’t go well, so I took it over. At first, I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to do both, but when you do cultivation, processing, and wholesaling all under one roof, you can be honest with your customers. I can count on my fingers how many pearl companies in Japan do it all under one roof like we do.
Is it because you have high quality standards that you choose to do both manufacture and sales?
People say, “The pearl cultivation industry is going through such hard times, what are you thinking? Why don’t you just buy some already made, process them and sell them?” But if you want to pursue good quality, it’s better to do both cultivation and processing yourself… only a moron would do that, though. (laughs) But, we never deceive the customers. There’s always deception at the sales end. So if you can be visible as the person who made the product as well as the person selling it, I believe that is the right way to do things, without a doubt.
You really seem to have a deep connection to your work in the pearl industry.
You’ve got to have a connection and do your work with sincerity if you work with pearls. It’s a dialogue with the oysters. You only get one chance to put in the nucleus, one chance with the scalpel. You can’t work at a cultivation farm with the attitude of a working man. If you don’t do it as a family, you just can’t do it well. It’s because you’re working with living things. It’s major surgery; you pop in a thing like a volleyball and get it to stay inside the oyster. It’s not a simple thing. Early mornings, late nights. My son has just started seeding, but he still hasn’t got it.
You run the pearl business with your whole family?
I’ve got four kids, so there are six of us in the family. The kids seem to be sticking with us alright. My oldest daughter is in Tokyo doing sales and advertising; my second daughter came back from Tokyo and is helping here with wholesaling and sales. The older of my two sons came back here, and now my younger son is a student and it looks like he’s going to come back and help out after he graduates. My wife does seeding too.
It’s really unusual for children to come back after they’ve left home. Your father and your older brother also worked in pearls, so it really is a close family you’ve got, isn’t it?
That’s right. Once, my brother started talking about going to Vietnam to do cultivation there. And he was going to go too. He had the final application in, and then my father said, “If you’re going to go, the whole family should go. And once we go, that’s it. Vietnam is home. We’ll sell our land and everything we have in Japan, and even bring our ancestors graves with us. If you’re really serious about doing it, then let’s really do it.”
Your dad talks pretty tough!
I think he was trying to say, “If you’re going to do it then give it your all, no turning back, get ready and go!” In the end, we didn’t go to Vietnam. But, even a tough guy like my dad got tricked by a dealer once. They had this spray, they said if you spray the shells then they won’t get dirty, and they’ll be able to make nice big pearls. This was back when I was a kid. We all helped with the spraying. But mollusks need to breathe through their shells. In the end the whole crop of oysters died. (laughs)
You were helping out even as a kid?
Back then, everyone helped out. In the old days, that was what we did for fun. My brother passed away, but his kids are still around, and they help out just as if they were my own kids. You need a tight family if you want to make it in the pearl business.
So, do you do any sort of research and development with pearls as a product?
Here, every day is a challenge, every day we’re doing research. We’ve been doing it that way for years. The surface lustre, the thickness of the nacre, and how to increase the chances of making something that we can sell; if we weren’t constantly working on that we wouldn’t be able to make it. And we’re also developing new products. We’re going to announce a new pearl soon, one that no one has ever seen before. But with pearls, you’ve got to get help from nature. It takes a year from when you put the nucleus in until you see a result.
Matsumoto Pearl has a unique product called “natural white pearl”. Is this a result of your research and development?
Yes. It’s our product made with a high level of translucency without using any process to adjust the color. I don’t mind how small we are, I want ours to be a brand that emphasizes quality. Volume and sales don’t matter. I just want people to say “Oh yes, that place.” “Ah, it’s that pearl brand from Uwajima, in Japan.” “They really put out a good product, don’t they?” That’s why I’ve always put a priority on quality.
Matsumoto Pearl
Saeki-machi 1-1-4, Uwajima, Ehime
Shinji Matsumoto
President, Matsumoto Pearl
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An interesting and well-written piece. The photos give a good introduction into the cultivation process however I think a little more written explanation and perhaps a glossary of terms would increase readers’ understanding of the subject.
Posted by: Matt Lindsay on May 14th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
for me pearls are one of the japanese symbols
Posted by: tomek on May 14th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
I would be interested in seeing a follow-up on this new pearl they’re developing.
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from where i can buy them
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Please await for a while. Now they seems to be preparing for selling their products on one of the internet site to the world. If you you send us(http://make.pingmag.jp/contact-form/) your email address. We will let you know when they are ready. by PingMag MAKE Editor
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Where in Tokyo we can find your spefici pearls?
Posted by: silvia on July 25th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
sorry i meant “specific”. i am going to japan in september and i would love to see Matsumoto pearls.
Posted by: silvia on July 25th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
good. thanks
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Who do I contact about Matsumoto pearls purchased in 1974
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