Caitlin
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http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/culture/20070305TDY03001.htm
Water purification to go petal-shaped in Osaka river
The Yomiuri Shimbun
An Osaka-based nonprofit organization working to purify rivers in the city through cultivating Ikecho-gai pearly mussels will launch a new project this spring in a river near the Japan Mint in Kita Ward.
Osaka Mizukaido 808 plans to spend four years producing cherry blossom petal-shaped pearls, inspired by the mint's reputation as one of the nation's best cherry blossom viewing spots.
The organization is giving members of the public an opportunity to participate in the project by inviting them to fish pearly mussels out of the water when cherry trees are in full bloom, four years from now when the mussels have matured.
To cultivate the petal-shaped pearls, other shells are formed into cherry blossom shapes to serve as a nuclei around which a pearl will grow. The cells of a shellfish, which is light pink inside, are placed in the shaped shells and then inserted in Ikecho-gai mussels.
The idea for the pearls came after discussions between the organization and a freshwater pearl farmer in Shiga Prefecture.
The organization is looking for people who want to own one of the pearls, priced at 9,000 yen per mussel, and will then submerge the mussels in the river in April. They will then be pulled from the river in the spring of 2011, when cherry blossoms at the mint will be in full bloom. Members of the organization will tend to the mussels until they have matured.
(Mar. 5, 2007)
Water purification to go petal-shaped in Osaka river
The Yomiuri Shimbun
An Osaka-based nonprofit organization working to purify rivers in the city through cultivating Ikecho-gai pearly mussels will launch a new project this spring in a river near the Japan Mint in Kita Ward.
Osaka Mizukaido 808 plans to spend four years producing cherry blossom petal-shaped pearls, inspired by the mint's reputation as one of the nation's best cherry blossom viewing spots.
The organization is giving members of the public an opportunity to participate in the project by inviting them to fish pearly mussels out of the water when cherry trees are in full bloom, four years from now when the mussels have matured.
To cultivate the petal-shaped pearls, other shells are formed into cherry blossom shapes to serve as a nuclei around which a pearl will grow. The cells of a shellfish, which is light pink inside, are placed in the shaped shells and then inserted in Ikecho-gai mussels.
The idea for the pearls came after discussions between the organization and a freshwater pearl farmer in Shiga Prefecture.
The organization is looking for people who want to own one of the pearls, priced at 9,000 yen per mussel, and will then submerge the mussels in the river in April. They will then be pulled from the river in the spring of 2011, when cherry blossoms at the mint will be in full bloom. Members of the organization will tend to the mussels until they have matured.
(Mar. 5, 2007)