Originally, Japanese farmers adopted the term Keshi to describe these tiny self-nucleated pearls that had grown by accident and were often found inside molluscs at harvest time. Nowadays, though, ‘Keshi’ cultured pearls form as a result of a bead-nucleus rejection during the cultivation of a saltwater pearl. They usually display an odd, baroque shape. ‘Keshi’ pearls have a nacreous layer structure and are considered to be cultured. ‘Keshi’ cultured pearls can grow to quite a size in the South Sea and Tahitian varieties.
