This place, formerly a castle town, is now an important garrison town and the extensive grounds which encircled the old castle have been laid out as a Public Garden the work being carried out by landscape gardeners, seemingly, of no mean ability. The offices and plant of the pearl culture company are situated at the water's edge some 20 minutes by ricksha from the railway station.
The Company, apparently, are staunch believers in the efficicacy of frequent and continuous advertising, as throughout the route from the station, at every cross-road or possible wrong turning, a large notice board appears intimating that “this road leads to the Pearl Company,” a direction pointing arrow further obviating any possibility of the visitor making a mistake and, in place of ultimately inspecting a most interesting exhibition of molluses and their products, finding himself deposited in a region the prominent characteristics of which are samisen, and sing-song, with general hilarity.
Instances, indeed, are not entirely unknown where the ricksha-man has erroneously “sized up” his fare and directed his course accordingly, with the above related deplorable result, but with such an austere personality as the Pilgrim, about whom such an obvious odour of sanctity prevails, needless to remark, the making of any such mistake is utterly out of the question.
Ryokan at Kotse
After passing through the town, the road lies through the Ko-en, or Public Garden previously referred to, passing by or under numerous torii and along an avenue of cherry trees flanked by a long and sinuous lotus pond. These trees, now gaunt and leafless, are a blaze of colour in the spring and attract numbers of the townsfolk, who indulge in all-day picnics in the park, admiring the blossoms, the literati expressing their admiration by inditing poems, which they affix to the blossom-laden branches.
Omura Ko-en - cherry trees and lotus ponds
The lotus, also, was not in flower but on each great leaf a rain drop glitters like a jewel in the transient sunbeams. On, past quaint and pretty suburban residences, each with its small orchard the boughs weighed down with the ripening fruit, mikan, nashi or kaki being the most apparent, until at length the ricksha-man pulls up at the gate of the S.K.K. plant.
A brief account of this flourishing industry may be appropriate. The Omura-wan Shinju Kabushiki Kwaisha, to give it its official title (Omura Bay Pearl Coy,. Ltd.) was organized as a joint-stock concern in 1913, the company incorporating the many existing small, private enterprises and carrying on the industry at Omura, with branch factories at Nagaura, Kikitsu and Sozu. For many years the pearls produced in the Gulf have been celebrated for their lustre and, while not so large as the Thursday Island product, they are in great and increasing demand, in the Home and Foreign markets. The area of the fishing ground is about 23,200 acres, from which over 200,000,000 pearl oysters are procured annually.
Given ordinary luck and the absence of the dreaded Akashi-wo or Red current, to which, however, unlike the Bay of Ise, the Omura Gulf is not particularly liable, the promoters and shareholders may congratulate themselves upon being associated in a flourishing industry. The Red Current appears to be due to the presence of infusoria, which at certain seasons appear in such quantities as to give the water a blood-red appearance. It is understood to be inimical to molluses, the pearl oyster in particular, and its appearance synchronises with many dead fish and consequent financial loss. In addition to the natural pearls gathered from the beds, the Company, as the result of extensive scientific investigation, have succeeded in increasing the annual output by their perfected method of pearl culture.
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