 Any natural pearl (without nucleus) may be called a keshi pearl, but doing so would be rather meaningless without mentioning the species of mollusc in which the pearl grew, or at least its geographic provenance.Use of "keshi pearl" without provenance is confusing and should be avoided.The term "keshi" (occasionally misspelled "Keishi", apparently a confusion with ""Heishi" beads") was first used in Japan to refer to pearls without nuclei.