Among the three of us, Aomi made the most spectacular leap in life. I’m sure Rita would agree on this point.

After obtaining an MBA from Harvard Business School, Aomi joined a major financial firm headquartered on Wall Street. She then worked around the clock and flourished into a top trader. Rumor had it that the wealth she built in her twenties could match the budget of an entire country. Yet her friendly character remained unchanged no matter how much of a star trader she became. A foodie with a particular love for oysters, her ultimate dream was “to become an oyster farmer.” And now, forget oysters — she is an ama (“sea woman”) who free dives to harvest wild abalone. Life really is unpredictable.

“When you told us you were returning to Japan to become an ama diver, I thought it was a pretty good joke. I had no idea you were being serious,” Rita said, as soon as we had settled into the living room of Aomi’s home — a compact yet immaculately kept single-story country house on the shore.

Aomi took out a chilled glass and a can of beer from the refrigerator. “Every time I made another dive, I found myself drawn more and more towards it,” she laughed.

Ultimately, she came to a decision after being directly affected by the global upheaval caused by the Lehman Shock. Rather than making money in the financial world, so detached from any sense of real existence, she felt that diving into the sea on her own, handpicking abalone clinging to the rocks, and selling them would give her a much deeper experience of “actual living.” So she resolved to become an ama diver.

Freshly picked abalone sashimi was sweet like fruit, with a sharp, pungent scent of the sea that stung the nose. Aomi’s face as she drank up her can of beer was a warm, golden toast color. She had more wrinkles than before, but I could tell they were all from laughing.

Pearls: Sacred Mysteries from Middle Ages to Today

As a specialist in the history of medieval dress, Rita says she has long envisioned an exhibition that explores the history of how pearls have been prized as jewellery across diverse countries and regions, from ancient times in Europe to the Orient.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection of medieval art features exquisite jewellery set with pearls. Of course, pearls also appear in artworks beyond the Met’s jewellery collection. Since the Middle Ages, they have been depicted in various paintings — from portraits of royalty and nobility to mythological paintings like “The Birth of Venus,” as well as other renowned works such as Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” — many of which are now housed in museums around the world. Whether through necklaces, earrings, rings, hair ornaments, hats, or dresses, artists have refined their brushwork to capture the mystical luster of pearls on canvas. There is a delicate beauty to the luster of pearls, distinct from the sharp brilliance of minerals such as diamonds.

According to Rita, pearls are “organic gems.” Perhaps that is why they captivate us so deeply with their soft, warm glow, which no other gem possesses. No wonder people have always believed that there is a mysterious magic hidden within pearls.

Five years ago, Rita began her thorough investigation into artworks featuring pearls from throughout history and across the globe. With the list of works for her exhibition nearly finalized, the only remaining task she was eager to accomplish for the show was a trip to Ise-Shima, including Toba.

Pearls can be found all over the world, but she knew very well that there was something truly special about Japanese pearls; that it was a Japanese man who achieved the first successful pearl cultivation; and that this man, Kokichi Mikimoto, famously declared to “adorn the necks of all women around the world with pearls.”