Color-themed posters for the exhibition "The Art of Jewellery" at the Lotte Museum of Art / Courtesy of Lotte Museum of Art Kazumi Arikawa's historic jewelry collection lands in Seoul By Park Han-sol At 72, Kazumi Arikawa’s life has been anything but straightforward. Growing up in the southern Japanese city of Fukuoka, he was raised by a single mother who ran a contemporary jewelry store. Yet, when it came time to find his own calling, he set out on a meandering journey of self-discovery.
Japanese antique jewelry dealer and collector Kazumi Arikawa speaks during a press preview for "The Art of Jewellery" exhibition, presented to showcase his 208-piece collection, at the Lotte Museum of Art in southern Seoul, Dec. 5, 2024. Newsis His first stop was Buddhism, dedicating two years to training as a monk.
However, the disciplined, ascetic lifestyle wasn’t the right fit, and he eventually returned to the secular world. For a time, he aspired to become a university professor, but his deep-seated lack of self-confidence stood in his way. In 1982, during a visit to the jewelry gallery at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, he experienced what he later described as a “heart-shaking” moment — one that would change his life forever.
Returning to Japan, Arikawa joined his family business, now managed by his sister, but with a new vision: to deal in antique Western gems, treating them as timeless works of art — treasures that have withstood the test of time for millennia, ra.
