Coral Mikan Kanzashi

Mikan🍊 (Japanese tangerine) design Kanzashi (Japanese traditional hair ornament) Natural color, untreated not dyed. This is a Kanzashi featuring a large pink (Momo) vintage coral bead and tourmaline leaf. Mikan is a one of the most popular fruits for Japanese 🍊 This particular type of coral is called Sudama coral. The coral bead on this Kanzashi has a lot of small holes (“su” 鬆 in Japanese). When a coral tree falls down in the sea and lies on the bottom for a long time, holes like this gradually form in the coral. This is a natural feature of untreated coral. Japanese people in the past appreciated these features created by nature that took thousands of years to form. Because they are light in weight, Sudama coral beads were often used as hair accessories and netsuke. Pink (momo-iro) coral has been rising in price every year, because it is no longer being harvested. The Kanzashi fork (metal part) was made by an established Kanzashi craftsman in Tokyo, whose workshop has been active for more than 100 years. He mostly makes hair ornaments for traditional Japanese performing artists, such as Kabuki and Japanese dance performers. I ordered this Kanzashi fork for my collection and…