A visit to Japan's Mikimoto Pearl Island
with H. E. Ardeshir Zahedi Foreign Minister of Iran
The greatest gift to our future is a connection to the past. Here is a photo recovered from the deep yore by Ambassador Ardeshir Zahedi. He is seen above seated between two women pearl divers together with the Iranian Delegation on a long, extensive 1969 official visit to Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and Hong Kong. At the time China had not yet been recognized by Iran, that came later. Standing on the first row from left to right are three most couteous Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials, Farhad Sepahbody and Dr. Ahmad Tehrani of Zahedi's private secretariat and three more Japanese officials. Seated on the 2nd row from left to right are our young Iranian cypher clerk, Dr. Manouchehr Fartash under-secretary of the Ministry, Noureddin Kia Ambassador of Iran to Japan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran Ardeshir Zahedi, Dr. Parviz Mina of NIOC and Assadollah Fahimi head of Zahedi's private secretariat. Mikimoto's Pearl Island was of course the home of the famous Mikimoto cultured pearls. There, pearls were cultured successfully for the first time in history in 1893 using a method developed by Kokichi Mikimoto whose austere statue dominates the above picture.
There have always been women divers in lovely Pearl Island, two of them seen above holding a rather empty basket. From the very beginning they worked alongside Kokichi Mikimoto, placing mother oysters deep on the ocean floor and bringing matured ones back. Still today, women divers can be seen dressed in traditional white clothes, diving for oysters containing the precious pearls and we had the opportunity to see a pearl diving demonstration. Dressed in traditional white clothes, women dive down to the ocean floor not only to recover the oysters containing the precious pearls, but also to place young ones in special beds at the bottom of the sea.
After diving to the ocean floor for several minutes, the divers resurface with wooden
containers holding the collected oysters. Pearl diving is a family tradition and the
diving techniques and skills are passed on from mother to daughter. It is said that women
are better divers because of larger lungs and thus the ability of women to hold their
breath longer than men.
Go search me.... but the entire trip was just great and we returned to our beloved Iran
with important agreements, fresh ideas and good souvenirs. One more point, the initiated
agreements were vital to the economic development of Iran who still today benefits highly
by them and our hard negotiating work with the Japanese government.