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.
