Collection: Jewellery | The Jewel Box

Jewellery kept and found in Japan: necklaces, earrings, rings, bracelets, brooches and exceptional works in precious metal. Discover the pieces by house, material, form and the stories they carry.

Japan keeps a box

Most jewellery collections are arranged by who made the pieces. This one is arranged by where they have been. Some of what lies here was made in Japan, in the way that a Mikimoto pearl strand was: the house's founder cultured his first semi-spherical pearl in 1893 and opened his Ginza jewellery shop by 1899. Some arrived from Paris, New York, Rome and Milan and stayed, bought across a counter and kept with the box and the card. And some is only now coming out, one piece at a time, after years in a drawer.

That is why the shelf is so wide. It runs from pearls and platinum to sterling silver, gilt clip earrings and the signed pieces of the great houses, and a single logic holds it together: each piece is read the way a curator would read an object, by its metal, its mark, its maker and its condition.

Where the trade lives

Tokyo has a district for this. Okachimachi, on the south side of the station of the same name in Taito Ward, has traditionally been described as the country's largest jewellery town. A Japan Times report in 2001 estimated some 2,000 jewellery shops and craft studios there, most of them serving the trade rather than the street, and put at about 65 per cent the share of the gems traded nationwide, excluding pearls, that passed through its streets. Numbers move over twenty-five years, but the picture is clear: stones, metal and craft concentrated in a few narrow blocks of one city.

Our Journal has walked those streets in a separate guide, linked below, and it is the best place to start if you want to understand the trade behind the shelf.

Reading the marks

Look first for the metal. A dealer's reference lists 18K as 75 per cent gold, the same as Au750; Pt950 as 95 per cent platinum; and 925 as 92.5 per cent silver. In Japan you will also meet K18 for eighteen-carat gold and Pt900 or Pt950 for platinum, with the platinum figures expressed in parts per thousand.

Some pieces carry a second stamp, the Japan Mint hallmark. The Mint tests articles submitted by manufacturers, importers and retailers and applies a mark that combines an emblem, characters for the metal and a fineness number, for example platinum at 850, 900, 950 or 1000, and gold at 375, 585, 750, 916 or 999. The reference we consulted states that this hallmarking is voluntary rather than compulsory, so a missing Mint mark is not a fault, and a present one is a welcome piece of evidence rather than a guarantee of anything else about the piece.

The other half of the reading is the box. A guarantee card, a laboratory report, the original case: we treat these as part of the piece, and our grades record whether they have survived.

Beginning a collection

Choose a movement and follow it. If the pearl is your thread, start with the strands and the Akoya. If it is silver, begin with the sterling pieces from the great houses, whose hallmarks are easy to read and whose weight tells the truth. If it is the clip earring and the gilt brooch, the costume jewellery shelf gathers the pieces made to carry an era in miniature. And if it is the stone and the precious metal themselves, the fine jewellery houses sit beside them. Every piece here is examined and documented in Tokyo, Japan before dispatch.

Looking for a particular maker, metal or stone?

Our Otoriyose private request desk can look within Japan for a specific piece of jewellery and reply with what is available.

Go deeper

The Jewel Box: Japan's jewellery almanac, covering houses, stones, crafts and marks
Okachimachi: inside Tokyo's jewellery quarter
Japanese Gold and Platinum Marks: reading K18, Pt900 and the Mint stamp
Kept in the Box: how Japan cares for jewellery and watches
Pearls: Akoya and the strands of Japan
Silver Jewellery: the silversmith's line, from studio hands to the great houses
Costume Jewellery: gilt, crystal and clip earrings
Fine Jewellery Houses: precious metals and gemstones under famous signatures
Authenticity and Condition: how a piece is examined, graded and documented

Frequently Asked Questions

What does K18 mean on a piece of jewellery?

It denotes eighteen-carat gold, which a dealer's reference lists as 75 per cent gold, the same as the European mark Au750. Platinum is marked Pt900 or Pt950, and sterling silver 925.

Is the Japan Mint hallmark compulsory?

No. The reference we consulted states that Japan Mint hallmarking is voluntary. Where it is present, it combines an emblem, characters for the metal and a fineness figure in parts per thousand.

What is Okachimachi?

It is a district of Taito Ward in Tokyo that has traditionally been called the country's largest jewellery town. A Japan Times report in 2001 estimated about 2,000 jewellery shops and craft studios there, mostly serving the trade.

Why do the box and card matter?

We treat a guarantee card, laboratory report or original case as part of the piece. Our grades record whether they are present, and the condition scale is explained on the Authenticity and Condition page.