Does Akoya mean saltwater in Japanese?

[craigster]

Sorry if this seems like a stupid question, but I have seen this claim on 4 different Websites now, and I have a Japanese friend who says it is not true.

[jshepherd]

That is not a stupid question at all. I had not seen this so I just did a google search "akoya means saltwater in Japanese" and the Sites popped up. Apparently one Site decided this and the others took it for granted that it was true. Well, surprise - it is not true.
Saltwater in Japanese is Shiomizu, not Akoya. I do not know if everyones' computers will be able to read this, but this is saltwater in Japanese 塩水. Akoya is the type of oyster, the common name of the Pinctada fucata. Believe it or not the Japanese word Akoya means Akoya in English!

[dmclaren]

Common names do not -necessarily- have to have a "real" meaning. In the case of Japanese names, most clams and oysters have a "Gai" tailing tag to denote their origin.
The JICA (Japanese International Cooperation Agency) gives the following "common names" to certain varieties of Pearl Oysters:

Mabe-gai: Penguin Winged Oyster - Pteria penguin
Akoya-gai: Common Pearl Oyster - Pinctada imbricata (=fucata)
Shirochou-gai: Silver/Gold Lipped Pearl Oyster - Pinctada maxima
Kurocho-gai: Black-lipped PO - P. margaritifera.

In spanish, the common names employed are "Madre Perla" for the "Panamian Black Lipped Oyster" -Pinctada mazatlanica- (loose translatuon is just "Mother-of-Pearl") and "Concha Nácar" for the "Rainbow Lipped Pearl Oyster" -Pteria sterna- (loose translation is "Nacreous Shell").

Maybe a japanese speaker may help us with the japanese names. I would like to know more about the meaning of the names.

[jshepherd]

I can actually help you out with the meanings of these words in Japanese. I am not sure about the actual origin of Mabe and Akoya, and I do not think many Japanese would be sure either. This is because there is no 'kanji' equivalent of these words in Japanese that I know of. In other words, both 'Akoya' and 'Mabe' are spelled out phonetically in Japanese in either Hiragana or Katakana - I have never seen it written in Kanji (or characters of Chinese origin), giving the words a discernible meaning.
The other names, kurocho-gai and shirocho-gai are actually quite simple.
This is Japanese for Kurocho-gai:
黒真珠
These three characters mean:
Black (kuro) - Butterfly (cho) - Shellfish (gai)
So the black-lip oyster is the 'black butterfly shellfish' in Japanese.
Shiro, comes from 'shiroi' which, of course, means white!
So the white-lipped oyster (silver) is the 'white butterfly shellfish' in Japanese.
The 'Gai' is going to be after every name, such as Akoya-gai, etc., simply to denote the actual shellfish.

[CortezPearls]

Just read this thread today (Sept-14th) and all of the information is good! I had the same information that Diego had...but my knowledge of Japanese is nill so I could not find this info elswhere and most japanese translations are sooo bad! (Once I found a translation stating that the seeding technique involves a bead and a piece of crab meat!).

Thaks for this very valuable info Mr. Shepherd!

Douglas

[National Pearl]

Mr. Shepard,

Very impressive explanation. My original background is as a Japanese and Chinese Mandarin linguist and thought I could be of help to Craigster. However, you beat me to the punch and I have nothing to ad. Well done!