1.   Cultured pearls dominate the U.S. market, and half of them come from Japanese Akoya oysters.

2.   Cultured pearls are formed by placing an irritant into the shell of an edible shellfish such as an oyster.

3.   Gentlemen admired you then, the way you swept your long locks up above your slender neck, where you would fasten that first strand of cultured pearls.

4.   It took Japanese innovators to perfect a process known as nucleation, once secret but described here, to create the cultured pearls to satisfy the demand.

5.   This is the home of the famous Mikimoto pearls, named for the man and the company that pioneered the making of cultured pearls a century ago.

6.   Today, a trade in cultured pearls is thriving.

7.   White cultured pearls turned gray, pale blue sapphires turned yellowish orange, and pink kunzite turned green.

8.   Meanwhile, in Uwajima, anger over the accident was strong in the many parts of the town where people make a living growing cultured pearls.