Ama (海女, “sea women”) are Japanese divers, known for collecting pearls, abalone and other seafoods. Ama have been diving in Japan for 2,000 to 3,000 years with documented records dating back to an 8th-century anthology of Japanese poetry: the Man'yōshū.
Ama specialise in freediving some 30 feet down into cold water, traditionally wearing nothing more than a fundoshi (loincloth) and a white tenugui (bandana) to cover their hair. Utilising special techniques to hold their breath for up to 2 minutes at a time, ama would work for up to 4 hours a day in order to gather abalone, seaweed and other shellfish. Upon surfacing, ama open their mouths slightly and exhale slowly, making a whistling sound known as “isobue”. [Ed: Could these gals be any more interesting?]
One of the reasons ama are largely female and not male is that a thicker layer of subcutaneous fat helps them endure the cold water during prolonged periods of diving. Another reason is the self-supporting nature of the profession, allowing women to live independently in their communities. And surprisingly, these women are able to keep diving for a long time. Most ama are elderly women (some even surpassing 90 years of age) who have practiced the art for many, many years, spending much of their life at sea.
The most profitable pursuit for ama was diving for pearls. Traditionally, finding a pearl inside an oyster was akin to receiving a large bonus. But that changed at the end of the 19th century when Kokichi Mikomoto (御木本 幸吉) established his luxury cultured pearl company Mikimoto Pearl, thereby dramatically increasing the demand for ama who were used to place the oysters back onto the ocean bed once they had been seeded.
As technology has progressed, the ama communities have adopted some new tools … but not others. Since the Meiji era, ama have worn goggles for clarity, and from 1964 wetsuits were introduced. However, even in modern times, ama continue to dive without scuba gear. One driver for this decision was to preserve an ama tradition, but the other consideration was one of sustainability. New fishing methods could easily enable greater hauls and reduce work, but at the same time, increase the risk of overfishing and damage the delicate ecosystems that supported life for these coastal towns. Despite this concession, numbers of abalone and other shellfish have been in decline, due in part to overfishing, but also the rising sea temperatures which affects the growth of the seaweed the shellfish eat.
Due to the lack of young women to succeed their elders and modernisation of Japan’s fisheries however, this ancient practice is dwindling. In 1956 there were 17,611 ama in Japan but as of 2023 only 1,200 remained. Of those, nearly half work in either Toba or Shima city, Mie prefecture. In Mie, traditional Ama divers have also turned to tourism to perpetuate their culture and offer various activities and experiences to live in their company.
There are a number of documentaries that have been made about the ama, including: Ama-San, a 2016 documentary film by Portuguese director Cláudia Varejão, Ama: Women of the Sea, an award-winning 2019 documentary film by British-Japanese filmmaker Georgie Yukiko Donovan and Where the sea whistle echoes, a short 2010 video from United Nations University. Check them out.
We will leave you with a couple of cultural references: James Bond becomes involved with ama “Kissy Suzuki” in the 1967 filmYou Only Live Twice, and The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife (蛸と海女) a woodblock-printed design by the Japanese artist Hokusai, published in 1814, depicts a young ama entwined sexually with a pair of octopuses! The image is often cited as a forerunner of what’s know as “tentacle erotica”. [Ed: Maybe that’s a topic for another REMORANDOM ;]
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References
wikipedia.org/wiki/Ama_(diving)
abysseofficial.com/blogs/journal/18689771-ama-the-pearl-diving-mermaids-of-japan
forbes.com/sites/priyashukla/2019/03/08/meet-the-female-pearl-divers-of-japan-the-ama/
wikipedia.org/wiki/Kokichi_Mikimoto
Images
1. Pearl divers in white uniforms, 1921
2. Ama with headscarves
3. Pearl diver with headscarf, 1935
4. Modern ama with wetsuit
5. Poster for Ama: Women of the Sea, 2019
6. Location of Mie prefecture in Japan
7. Ama off Hegurajima, a small island in the Sea of Japan
8. Portrait of Mikimoto Kokichi (御木本幸吉, 1858–1954)
9. Video: Where the sea whistle echoes, Unite Nations University, 2010
10. Mie Hama plays Kissy Suzuki in You Only Live Twice, 1967
11. The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife (蛸と海女) by Hokusai, 1814
