Akoya Cultured Pearl Strand or balance
MIKIMOTO · TASAKI
Akoya Cultured Pearl Strand
One row of matched round Akoya pearls on silk, closed by a small gold clasp: the pearl necklace made repeatable by Mikimoto's own invention.
balance
Akoya pearls of one size set shoulder to shoulder on a straight gold bar, held perfectly level like a spirit gauge at rest.
TASAKI's balance answers the strand. Kokichi Mikimoto's first cultured pearl, grown in 1893 around an irritant he slipped into an Akoya oyster, opened the way to strands that could be matched and repeated; the house's Akoya Cultured Pearl Strand is still one row on silk behind a small gold clasp. In 2010 Thakoon Panichgul, newly creative director at TASAKI, lifted that pearl off the strand and lined it up on a straight gold bar, level as a spirit gauge. A soft curve round the neck becomes a hard horizontal line.
| Fact | Akoya Cultured Pearl Strand | balance |
|---|---|---|
| Introduced | 1893 | 2010 |
| Designer | Kokichi Mikimoto | Thakoon Panichgul |
| School | Tokyo | Tokyo |
| Materials | pearl, yellow gold, white gold | yellow gold, white gold, rose gold, pearl, diamond |
| Moves | No | No |
| From | €5,850 | €1,030 |
| Top of line | €21,200 | €447,000 |
Prices in euros as published by each house, October 2026.