Supersize Brooches Lead Mikimoto’s New High Jewelry Collection

Flower brooch with pink, yellow, green and white diamonds

Last month, Mikimoto unveiled its new high jewelry collection, a magnificent showcase of pearl and gemstone pieces, all corresponding to the luxury jeweler’s chosen theme: “The Japanese Sense of Beauty.”

Together, the jewels present a uniquely Japanese vision of beauty brought to life in a literal sense by supermodel Ai Tominaga, the perfect embodiment of Mikimoto’s aesthetic. The pieces also draw on the country’s landscape features and florals, while celebrating its most iconic art forms, from kimonos and woodblock prints to all manner of traditional Wagara patterns.

Large brooches—as big as lily pads—lead the collection, and they look divine when they’re perched off-center on a neckline or when a few of them are clustered at the tip of the shoulder.

Here’s one decorated with three motifs: a fan, the moon, and the pink and purple blossoms that spring forth from Japanese clover.

Brooch hand fan shape, with pink, green and purple diamonds and a gold pearl — *Brooch in 18k white gold with golden South Sea pearl, sapphires, spinels, garnets, diamonds, and mother-of-pearl, price on request*.

Another, with its rush of cascading diamond and gemstone fringe, is inspired by artist Hokusai’s depictions of waterfalls in his famous ukiyo-e landscapes.

*Brooch in 18k white and rose gold with freshwater pearl, jadeite, tanzanite, emeralds, sapphires, and diamonds, price on request*.

Chrysanthemums, an important symbol in Japanese culture, are invoked in the two brooches and ring shown below.

From left: Brooch in 18k white gold with Melo pearl and diamonds; brooch in 18k white gold with black South Sea pearl, aquamarines, sapphires, and diamonds; and ring in 18k white gold and platinum with conch pearl, akoya keshi pearls, tourmalines, rubies, and diamonds. All prices on request.

The bloom’s petals are captured in a famous Wagara pattern known as mujinagiku, and are expertly expressed in a light, airy openwork high jewelry necklace.

*Necklace in 18k white gold, conch pearl, zoisite, and diamonds, price on request*.

This suite is an homage to the bokashi technique, used in some 19th-century Japanese woodblock prints, that blurs pigments to create a gradation of light-to-dark shades.

Japanese supermodel Ai Tominaga wears jewels in 18k white gold with akoya pearls, tourmalines, diamonds, and mother-of-pearl. — *Japanese supermodel Ai Tominaga wears jewels in 18k white gold with Akoya pearls, tourmalines, diamonds, and mother-of-pearl. Prices on request.*

And finally, an iconic Japanese wave pattern known as seigaiha used in Japanese kimonos surfaces in the magnificent creations below.

Tominaga wears jewels in 18k white gold with akoya pearls, opals, tourmalines, diamonds, and mother-of-pearl. — *Tominaga wears jewels in 18k white gold with Akoya pearls, opals, tourmalines, diamonds, and mother-of-pearl. Price on request.*

Top: This brooch, made in 18k white and yellow gold with peridot, sapphires, garnets, diamonds, and coral inlay takes inspiration from a multilayered ceremonial kimono of the Heian period, as illustrated in The Tale of Genji, a 11th-century Japanese literary classic written by the noblewoman and lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu. Price on request.

By Amy Elliott

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