A visit to House of Keshi/Pearl Exporting Company in Kobe

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Mr. Sundeep Shah is the face behind the company that began with his father. Born and raised in Japan, but Indian by origin. His father came to Japan in 1956 to work for his uncle who was a pearl dealer. He immediately fell in love with the country and the people and knew this is where he would stay. While his father was procuring pearls for his uncle, he came across the keshi pearls. His father decided to start his own business in 1962, and by 1966 he became well-known for buying keshi. Keshi is the Japanese word for poppy seed, referring to the small size. Today they are one of the largest keshi dealers. His father is now 91 and lives an active social life meeting daily with friends at the nearby India Club.

His father was a visionary putting all his efforts into buying as much keshi as he could back then, as there are not many new keshi out there anymore. There also is a dwindling population of skilled craftsmen to drill and string these tiny keshi. Each tiny keshi is drilled by hand, with hand tools in India. Here’s a photo of the actual tools-

 

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Mr. Shah came into the business in 1985. For 50 years, they started collecting keshi and selling only what they needed to survive. With whatever money they made, they would purchase more keshi. He and his father had the same vision. They have controlled their buying and have an exemplary stock of old material. The quality of keshi in the past 15 years has not been comparable.

Pearl Exporting Company was his father’s original business. Today they also have a brand called Gifts of the Mermaid, and another brand called Love for Pearls. Last year they decided to consolidate everything under House of Keshi. This umbrella is still under construction. They have offices in the US, India, Japan and Sri Lanka. Today they have over 2,000 designs. From around 1999, they started playing with different designs. This led to upping their game in order to create pieces that wouldn't break using strong thread and making sure the manufacturing is perfect.

I am sharing random snapshots as I moved about both the storefront and office space and was able to admire and handle all the keshi and jewelry. The first photo is of Mr. Sundeep Shah and his wife-

 

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Can you find the needle in the pearl-stack? The needles are specially crafted for them as they need a unique size of needle as well as thread to work with the tiny keshi. Before this, they used horse hair for needles. The craftsmen who make these needles are also a part of the essential resources that are becoming scarce.

 

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The lighting in the showroom was casting little snowflakes on some of the pics. I have to say I was kind of loving the effect.

 

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I would like to thank Mr. Shah for generously allowing me to play with all his pearls and for sharing his story and the history of the company.

 

[BWeaves]

JEG, thank you for sharing photos of their shop and designs. They're gorgeous. I bought one of their necklaces during a PP Live event, and the quality of the pearls and stringing is amazing. In hindsight, I wish I'd bought more. It's probably good I wasn't in their shop. I would have wanted to buy everything.