Tenjo Grade?

[CrazyMissy]

Hello pearl people!

I am at the jewelry fair here in Singapore, and I came across a beautiful 8.5-9mm akoya necklace. The shop guy said that this is a Tenjou grade (for those who know Japanese, the sign on the PSL certificate has the characters "heaven" and "lady" on it). And he said that this was higher than a Hanadama.

Has anyone encountered this? Is this grade for real?

 

[Lady_Disdain]

Ask him who is issuing this grade.

I did a quick google search and found nothing. Well, a lot of anime but no pearls.

 

[jshepherd]

Hello pearl people!

I am at the jewelry fair here in Singapore, and I came across a beautiful 8.5-9mm akoya necklace. The shop guy said that this is a Tenjou grade (for those who know Japanese, the sign on the PSL certificate has the characters "heaven" and "lady" on it). And he said that this was higher than a Hanadama.

Has anyone encountered this? Is this grade for real?

I've encountered it at shows in Hong Kong. It's a grade based on color and quality and was created for the Chinese market, which is why you'll typically find it in Asia, but not in the US.

 

[CrazyMissy]

Thanks Jeremy, any idea how it differs from a Hanadama? I wanted to ask the vendor, unfortunately he's not proficient in English. I wish I took my Japanese language classes more seriously...

 

[jshepherd]

I've asked and gotten different stories. They look like regular pinked hanadamas to me. I haven't seen any natural whites with the designation, so I believe it has to do with what and pink tones. The most important thing is that they are still hanadama, so it isn't so much they vary from hanadama, it's a type of hanadama. If that makes sense.

 

[CrazyMissy]

Got it, thanks Jeremy! The puzzled look on my face must have amused the shop guy. It was hard reading the Japanese certs with what little practice I have, and encountering the Tenjou grade stumped me.

 

[Katbran]

Interesting...glad you asked ..and glad Jeremy answered ! Thank you both !

 

[michellechan2211]

Thanks for asking this question and Jeremy for answering! I remember seeing this booth at the jewellery fair also and was wondering what Tenjo meant.

 

[CrazyMissy]

Ok, so I visited a few more stalls for hanadamas, and it seems that there is pride when they say, "we also have tenyou, you want to see it?". I feel so bad not knowing about it but I ride along and ask for it to be taken out. And they do take these out with a flourish!
Maybe the seniors and experts can spot the hanadama from the tenjou/or tenyou.



@michellechan2211: heyah! will you be showing your pearl loot from the fair?


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Ans: top 2 strands are tenyou/tenjou, bottom 2 are hanadama. 9.0-9.5mm for all strands.

 

[michellechan2211]

@CrazyMissy

Haha, I tend to go the fair to get inspiration, take a look at the specials and fill my gifting for the year so I don't purchase very much. This time I got a couple items but they tend to be more on the "Good value" end of the scale rather than the special stuff people share on the forum ^^; if you want I can show you the things I did get!

 

[Lugana]

CrazyMissy, oh that a tricky one are the top two "Goddess" and the bottom two hanadamas? It's very difficult to tell by the photo because (as far as I understand it ) that grade refers to the colors that are seen when the light is reflected from the pearls. For me, before I started seriously thinking about it now, it was always just a characteristic like "aurora" effect but not aurora - a different pattern of glow. But as Jeremy said, not that any of these were of natural color, so I never particularly bothered with finding out the difference before now

So I might (must ) be completely wrong here. Just in caseI've send a request to the Pearl Science Laboratory - let's see if they have something to say about it themselves

 

[Lugana]

Jajajaja silly me, I started guessing when you already answered yourself)) sorry)

 

[CrazyMissy]

No problem Lugana. I must have bad eyesight, all of them seem to have great luster and surface quality. Top 2 tenyo are more consistently pink, 3rd strand looks creamy, and the last one, well, looks pink like the first two! I also checked their nacre thickness, they are all 0.5mm to 0.8mm. I don't see where the price jump comes from, but maybe those in the know can see.

 

[Red]

The luster looks a bit better on the Tenjo grade to my eye. See how the dark area surrounding the reflected light in the center of each pearl seems a bit deeper and a bit better defined. I guessed right, by the way. My eyes go immediately to the second strand from the top. The top strand has some pearls that are out of focus, so the better definition of the Tenjo grade is hard to see in your photo.

 

[Katbran]

I'm with Red..the second from the top catches my eye. I see a colour difference but barely, top two look a bit pinker...maybe...

 

[Lugana]

Pearl Science Laboratory replied

In short, Tennyo pearls are hanadama pearls with such strong aurora effect that scored 90 out of 100 points in their analysis (carried out with the use of a special device called "Aurora viewer"). Everything that scored below 90 points in that test is just "aurora" hanadama (hardly just is the right word, sounds sort of belittling, but well))))) any other hanadama strand that doesn't have aurora effect to start with, by default cannot be "Tennyo" grade as it's a special top characteristic of that particular effect.

So we all were right, it's like top top quality hanadama pearls that have some very special (according to their classification) light reflection pattern in its strongest form (top aurora effect).

 

[Lady_Disdain]

Is aurora a relatively new terminology? I have always heard and used orient. Having two terms for the same phenomenum seems only to add confusion to a market that is already obscure to most people.

 

[Red]

I wonder if the machine is primarily measuring light reflection?

 

[Lugana]

Is aurora a relatively new terminology? I have always heard and used orient. Having two terms for the same phenomenum seems only to add confusion to a market that is already obscure to most people.

As far as I understand, most of the research of Pearl Science Laboratory is based on the achievements of its founder Hiroshi Komatsu. One of his most prominent works was related to the research of how to measure pearls' light reflecting patterns, and predecessor of that work was Teizo Aida in 1986 (who actually differentiated the notion of "teri" from luster and published a method how to optically measure it). They both agreed that pearls are exceptional nature creations because their glow pattern is determined by both reflected (what we call body color?) and transmitted light (what we generally call overtone I suppose?) - while most other nature creations have only one or another.

So I wouldn't say the concept is new. Probably the word "orient" is just colloquial for "aurora"? Or, alternatively, orient can be seen in freshwater pearls, while in saltwater pearls it's "aurora"? I've seen tahitian strands certified by PSL with "aurora" qualification..

To be honest, I get confused when it comes to terminology and I'm generally rubbish in theoretical descriptions hopefully Jeremy will be able to shed more light on it..

 

[Lugana]

I wonder if the machine is primarily measuring light reflection?

Hell knows to be honest.. here's what I found related to their "aurora" research.. I suppose that graph is how the result looks?.. the more I read the more I get confused about the whole thing o.0