|
| |
|
TOBA |
| |
|
|
| |
Although it's on an attractive bay, the town of TOBA is not
somewhere to linger. The seafront is a strip of car parks, ferry
terminals and shopping arcades, behind which run the main road and train
tracks. Really the only point in stopping here, unless you need
accommodation or are catching a ferry, is to pay homage to the
birthplace of cultured pearls.
In 1893 Mikimoto Kokichi (1858-1954), the son of a Toba noodle-maker,
produced the world's first cultivated pearl using tools developed by a
dentist friend. Just six years later he opened his first shop in Tokyo's
fashionable Ginza shopping district, from where the Mikimoto empire
spread worldwide. His life's work is commemorated - and minutely
detailed - on Mikimoto Pearl Island (daily: April-Oct 8.30am-5/5.30pm;
Jan-March, Nov & Dec 9am-4.30pm; ¥1500), lying just offshore five
minutes' walk south of Toba's train and bus stations. Even if you're not
a pearl fan, the museum is extremely well put together, with masses of
information in English describing the whole process from seeding the
oyster to grading and stringing the pearls. There's also a section
devoted to Mikimoto's extraordinary pearl artworks, including a spinning
globe, a model of the Yume-dono pavilion with a revolving top, and a
modest little crown containing 872 pearls and 188 diamonds. The unsung
heroines of all this are the women divers ( ama ) who stoically come out
every hour or so in all weathers to demonstrate their skills. Though ama
are no longer employed in the pearl industry, some 2000 local women
still earn their living this way, collecting abalone, sea urchins and
seaweed from the rocky coast. On average they'll spend three to four
hours a day in the water, going down to a depth of 10-15m, and some are
still diving at the age of 60. The argument for using women is that they
can apparently hold their breath longer than men and are blessed with an
extra layer of insulating fat.
|
| |
|
