A group of Japanese grannies emerges from a boat returning to shore. Clad in black wetsuits and bubbling with energy, they are part of a dwindling community of ama — free-diving fisherwomen. As they compare the hauls of shellfish they have gathered, the women — who range from 60 to…
A group of Japanese grannies emerges from a boat returning to shore. Clad in black wetsuits and bubbling with energy, they are part of a dwindling community of ama — free-diving fisherwomen.
As they compare the hauls of shellfish they have gathered, the women — who range from 60 to 80 years old — could be mistaken for teenagers underneath the water, gliding gracefully in the dark depths of the Pacific.
« I really feel like I am a mermaid among the fish, it’s a fantastic sensation, » says a beaming Hideko Koguchi, who works as an ama in the coastal town of Toba.
Back on shore, she kneels and counts the turban shells — a type of sea snail — gathered by the group.
Dressed in her full ama outfit — a mask that covers her eyes and nose, flippers and a black wetsuit that replaced a white version worn until the 1960s — Koguchi sheds the weight of her years.
She has been an ama for three decades, and says proudly that she hopes to be diving « for another 20 years ».
During the diving season, which lasts for 10 months a year, the local fishing association scrutinizes weather forecasts and information on marine stocks each day, before issuing a call for the women from loudspeakers.
Each ama — which means « woman of the sea » — has only rudimentary equipment: a buoyant ring to signal her presence at the surface while she dives, and a net to hold her haul.
