7 Recommended Jewelry Brands to Buy in Japan

Gimel is a highly favored brand that was called "the antique jewelry of the future" by an international auction house. These pieces are created one-by-one by craftsmen working by hand to place the tiny stones just right. The motifs are things like chicks, leaves eaten by bugs, cherry blossom buds, and many other charming ideas. The beautiful stones brought together by great skill and the lovely motifs will take hold of your heart when you look at it. Gimel doesn't have its own company shop, so you must visit a store that offers their products.

Since 1884, Uyeda Jeweller has aimed to offer jewelry that will be offered for 100 years, so they have worked hard in their jewelry-making techniques. Some of the clients on their list include not just stars like Babe Ruth and Sophia Loren but also political wives like Jean Marie Faircloth MacArthur and Haru M. Reischauer. They use Japan's unique aesthetic, the beauty of subtraction, and combine it with Western techniques to create a gorgeous union. Their jewelry has been created with over 100 years of elegance upon elegance, so please take a look.

Niwaka is a jewelry brand from Kyoto. Each of Niwaka's jewelry pieces have been given a name in kanji with roots hidden in the beautiful sights and nature of Kyoto. For example, the sparkling pair of earrings made with countless of diamonds is called "Kyokomachi," and the design came from the glimmering stone-paved streets of Kyoto after rainfall. If you look at the glimmering Kyokomachi earrings waving in the air, the image of the Kyoto streets lit up by the moonlight after a storm will come to mind. There are many other charming pieces with kanji names, so why not stop by and look at the jewelry and their names at the same time? Also, the Niwaka store was designed by the world-famous Tadao Ando. Please come look at both the jewelry and the architecture!

Mokumegane, which is where this brand gets its name from, was created in Japan 400 years ago. It's a technique referring to stacking different colors of gold and shaving it down until it looks like a wood pattern. Mokumeganeya uses this technique to make jewelry. They have made about 20,000 pieces of order-made jewelry for customers. Other than jewelry, they also offer items like necktie pins, so this is a shop for people with interest in traditional Japanese art!