1st: Matsuda Pearl Farm
松田真珠養殖さんの珠入れの様子 、琴の海の東側、エノクシと呼ばれる場所にあります。
Injecting the nucleus and core for the pearl into a live oyster Akoya shell…This is the Matsuda Pearl farm in East side of Koto Sea.
貝立てと呼ばれる方法、伝統的な珠を入れる為に並べられた貝ちゃんたち。ぎゅうぎゅうに詰められているので、一つが取られると、ポッと息を吐くように口を開く。
This is the traditional way of how to open shell’s mouth. They have packed in tight each other, so one oyster picks up,
then they are bit free to breath then they start open the mouth.
開いた口にプラスチックで固定。私も挑戦、見た目は簡単そうに見えても貝の中身を傷つけないように優しく、優しく。
Fix the mouth with stick. I tried to help out. Once it seems quite easy, but actually I have to attention a lot to avoid hurting inside.
珠を入れるところ、手術のようで痛そう。いえ、痛いはず。珠を入れるのはシーズン中ひたすら、だいたい９月くらいまで続けます。
It’s like a surgery… injecting the nucleus and core into the womb of mother oyster. I feel they are too painful. … This work continues around September.
何が起ころうがひたすら、珠入れ！ 集中力が必要です。
He continues to injecting work even though something happen around him.. It need concentration.
綺麗な真珠の色を出すために、色の綺麗な真珠の細胞を切り取ります。ピース切りと呼ばれる。この細胞をコアと一緒に、母貝の子宮に埋め込み、真珠を育てて行きます。つまり、一つの真珠が生まれるために、二つの命がなくなるのです。
To create beautiful color of pearl, the mantles of Akoya shell is cutting from Akoya shell that has beautiful color.
It’s called ‘Peace cutting’. Then its nucleus inject into womb with core…. so to born a pearl, two lives have to died.
2nd: Nakamura Pearl farm.
中村真珠さん：西彼町の風光明媚な場所にある真珠養殖屋さん。綺麗に整理された真珠の玉入れの場所と道具。静かな時間が流れる中、丁寧に作業が続きます。
2nd farm we visited, called Nakamura pearl farm in Seihi-Cho. Here is surround lovely atmosphere . Their working space is very organized .
They do their job very carefully in quiet time.
お父様、素人の私が見ても上手に入れてらっしゃいました、丁寧さが伝わります。きっとあこや貝も丁寧な方が、痛みは和らぎそうです。
Mr. Nakamura, father’s work is very original and mature. I felt it’s so sensitive and delicate. I think good surgery( I mean) make them heal.
お父様とお二人でお仕事されています。
Father and his son are working together.
中村さんのピース切りの様子。貝の種類も違いますが、台はサルスベリを使ったり、細かな作業への工夫もそれぞれの真珠養殖場で違います。
海の様子も東と西では変わります、これらの要素が重なり、それぞれの環境が生み出すオリジナルの真珠を生み出して行きます。
Each Pearl farm has own way, tequnique to create pearl. Whole way is almost same, but small things are different, also the environment of the Sea is different from West and East Side in Koto Sea. These elements are weaved with reflecting their sea environment, the unique pearl will be born as life. Pearl is like a human, each pearl has each character. It means that it’s only one to exist in this world.
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The cultivated Pearl is produced by men injecting the nucleus for the pearl into a live oyster. The pearl -cultivating process begins with the insertion of small round bead of mother-of -pearl into a pearl oyster. It takes about three to five years for pearls to develop fully….
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acoya
‘真珠、その命を落としその美を生む’
あこや真珠の日本における発見は縄文時代にさかのぼります。あこや貝を神殿として用いた跡が残っており神聖な存在であったことを物語っています。
また古事記、万葉集には‘しらたま’として巫女が身につけ魂と共通する存在であり、美しい人の例えでもありました。
日本のあこや真珠の輝きは日本の四季ゆえ世界中でも美しいと言われています。この美しさは海、自然がもたらす偶然の美であり、それは海と人間の丁寧な仕事が生み出す奇跡の命でもあります。命は一つ一つがユニークであり、同じ色、形は二つと存在しません。この偶然の美であり、命の奇跡、ユニークな存在のあこや真珠を’acoya’ と名付けました。
海、自然環境を守り、太古の昔の物語を伝え、琴の海と呼ばれる大村湾と長崎の海から生まれたあこや真珠を世界に伝えます。
acoya
Pearls, sacrificing life to give birth to beauty.
The discovery of Akoya pearls in Japan dates back to the Jomon Age (14,000-300 BCE). The remains of Akoya oysters have been found at sites where shrines once stood, telling us that they were once regarded as sacred. In the ancient chronicles known as the Kojiki and the poetry collection Manyoshu, pearls appear as “shiratama” (white gems), worn by shrine maidens, regarded as spirits, and used as a metaphor for female beauty.
Like the changing seasons in Japan, the luminescence of Akoya pearls is praised around the world for its beauty. It is the spontaneous beauty of the oceans and nature, a miraculous life born of careful collaborative work between humans and the sea. Each and every life is unique, with no two shapes or colors alike. To this spontaneous beauty, to this miraculous life, to these singular existences known as Akoya pearls, we have given the name “acoya.”
Protecting the sea and natural environment, we bring you stories of time immemorial, we bring to the world Omura Bay, known as the Koto Sea, and the oceans of Nagasaki, from where Akoya pearls are born.
acoya made in Nagasaki
Production C& http://www.candheart.com