Q: Is the "hanadama" collection more "pink" in color than just "pink" overtones and The AmericanPearl.com web site states of their "Collection" series. Is there a "higher" grade of pearl than the Hanadama? Thank you.
A: This is a question we get asked quite frequently. It is unfortunate that there is some misinformation about Hanadama on the Internet today. So far, it is contained to AmericanPearl.com. That is fortunate.
Hanadama has nothing to do with the color of the pearls. Hanadama literally means "spherical flower" and the name is derived from the national flower of Japan - the sakura. The sakura actually blooms white - not rose. Hanadama pearls are available in both rose and silver. But they are no pinker than other akoya pearls in general.
American Pearl once claimed that Hanadama are the highest-quality pearl in the world. They did this until other online companies started also selling Hanadama, but at lower prices. This happened last year. In fact, last year Hanadama was AmericanPearl.com's "Collection Quality". You can see that here in Web archives:
http://web.archive.org/web/20060207012322/www.americanpearl.com/collectionselection.html
and
http://web.archive.org/web/20060207020640/www.americanpearl.com/85x9mmcolqua.html
AmericanPearl.com archived pages can be found here: http://web.archive.org/web/*/http:/www.americanpearl.com
Kokichi Mikimoto was the first to commercially harvest akoya pearls, and the Mikimoto company is the company that created the grading, Hanadama. This is now an industry term used to refer to the highest quality akoya pearls in the world. The following can be found on the Mikimoto Web site:
http://www.mikimoto.com/uk/about_jewellery/pearls/index.html
"MIKIMOTO pearls are referred to as hanadama, or 'flower pearls', which denotes the highest quality pearls."
According to the standards of akoya pearl grading, there are no pearls that are better than Hanadama. This is not to say some Hanadama may be slightly better than others, but even the finest strand of akoya pearls in the world would still be Hanadama.
I hope this answers your questions. If you would like to do more reading on the subject I suggest a visit to Pearl-Guide.com, in particular the Hanadama discussions on the expert and community forums.
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2 comments:
Here is a good definition of hanadama.
http://www.pearl-guide.com/hanadama-akoya-pearls.shtml
I think it would help to have something produced by the Japanese lab and by Mikimoto that gives the criteria associated with the hanadama grade. I realize this is detailed on the hanadama certificate, but unless one sees the certificate they really have no way to know what are the standards or criteria. This opens the door for not-so-scrupulous sellers to make unsubstantiated claims.
How many people have found American Pearl’s claims that “hanadama is not a quality indicator but only a color indicator” and taken the statement at face value? Those people probably now believe it because few likely visit Mikimoto’s Web site or Pearl-Guide.com just to research a claim. If Mikimoto and the PSL of Tokyo would publish the criteria of hanadama on their Web sites instead of simply their certificates I think it would make false claimants’ jobs a lot more difficult.
This is just my two cents on the topic. I am glad this blog post is here. I have fielded a number of calls about the hanadama statements on AmericanPearl.com.
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