Custodian of Beauty

Kazumi Arikawa does not collect jewels in the ordinary sense. He does not chase carats, nor seek status pieces for glittering galas or sealed vaults. What he collects instead are fragments of history, spanning 5,000 years of artistry, culture, and wonder embedded in jewellery.

When he speaks of a jewel, it is not as an object, but as an unforgettable sensation.“I remember the moment I first held it,” he says, describing a cameo carved by Nicola Morelli (1771–1838), once the private possession of Napoleon himself. The piece, delicately human and achingly precise, was one of the few personal belongings the exiled emperor was permitted to take to Saint Helena.

“When the piece eventually came into my hands,” Arikawa recalls, “I was so deeply moved that for nearly two weeks after its acquisition, I couldn’t let go of the feeling. It was as if my very soul continued to quiver.”