![Ama](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Ama.jpg)
are
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
ese
divers
Diver or divers may refer to:
*Diving (sport), the sport of performing acrobatics while jumping or falling into water
*Practitioner of underwater diving, including:
**scuba diving,
**freediving,
**surface-supplied diving,
**saturation diving, a ...
famous for collecting pearls, though traditionally their main catch is
seafood
Seafood is any form of sea life regarded as food by humans, prominently including fish and shellfish. Shellfish include various species of molluscs (e.g. bivalve molluscs such as clams, oysters and mussels, and cephalopods such as octopus an ...
. The vast majority of are women.
Terminology
There are several sea occupations that are pronounced "ama" and several words that refer to sea occupation.
* – a female sea-diving
fisherperson
* – a male sea-diving
fisherperson
* , – a sea-diving
fisherperson of either gender
* ''uminchu'' () – a sea
fisherperson of either gender in
Okinawan
While one definition of ama specifically refers to divers, another definition refers to fisherpersons in general.
History
Japanese tradition holds that the practice of may be 2,000 years old.
![Parelduikers Pearl divers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Parelduikers_Pearl_divers.jpg)
Records of female
pearl divers
Pearl hunting, also known as pearling, is the activity of recovering pearls from wild molluscs, usually oysters or mussels, in the sea or freshwater. Pearl hunting was prevalent in the Persian Gulf region and Japan for thousands of years. On t ...
, or , date back as early as AD 927 in Japan's
Heian period
The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese. ...
. Early were known to dive for
seafood
Seafood is any form of sea life regarded as food by humans, prominently including fish and shellfish. Shellfish include various species of molluscs (e.g. bivalve molluscs such as clams, oysters and mussels, and cephalopods such as octopus an ...
and were honored with the task of retrieving
abalone
Abalone ( or ; via Spanish , from Rumsen ''aulón'') is a common name for any of a group of small to very large marine gastropod molluscs in the family (biology), family Haliotidae. Other common name
In biology, a common name of a taxon o ...
for shrines and imperial emperors. traditionally wear white, as the colour represents purity and also to possibly ward off
shark
Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimo ...
s. Traditionally and even as recently as the 1960s, dived wearing only a
loincloth
A loincloth is a one-piece garment, either wrapped around itself or kept in place by a belt. It covers the genitals and, at least partially, the buttocks. Loincloths which are held up by belts or strings are specifically known as breechcloth or ...
, but in the 20th century, the divers adopted an all-white sheer diving uniform in order to be more presentable while diving.
Even in modern times, dive without
scuba gear
Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for " Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chri ...
or
air tanks, making them a traditional sort of
free-diver
Freediving, free-diving, free diving, breath-hold diving, or skin diving is a form of underwater diving that relies on breath-holding until resurfacing rather than the use of breathing apparatus such as scuba gear.
Besides the limits of breath- ...
.
Pearl diving were considered rare in the early years of diving. However,
Mikimoto Kōkichi
was a Japanese entrepreneur who is credited with creating the first cultured pearl and subsequently starting the cultured pearl industry with the establishment of his luxury pearl company Mikimoto.Ward, Fred. Pearls: Bethesda, MD: Gem Book Pu ...
's discovery and production of the
cultured pearl in 1893 produced a great demand for . He established the
Mikimoto Pearl Island
is a small island in Ise Bay, offshore Toba, Mie Prefecture, Japan. The island is known as the birthplace of cultured pearl aquaculture.
The island is owned by , which operates the island as a tourist attraction, exhibiting pearls and pearl c ...
in Toba and used the 's findings to grow his business internationally.
Nowadays, the pearl-diving are viewed as a tourist attraction at Mikimoto Pearl Island.
The number of continue to dwindle as this ancient technique becomes less and less practiced, due to disinterest in the new generation of women and the dwindling demand for their activity. In the 1940s, 6,000 were reported active along the coasts of Japan, while today practice at numbers more along the scale of 60 or 70 divers in a generation.
Activities
Women began diving as as early as 12 and 13 years old, taught by elder . Despite their early start, divers are known to be active well into their 70s and are rumored to live longer due to their diving training and discipline. In Japan, women were considered to be superior divers due to the distribution of their fat and their ability to hold their breath.
The garments of the have changed throughout time, from the original loincloth to the white sheer garbs and eventually to the modern diving wetsuit.
![Off to Harvest 1935](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Off_to_Harvest_1935.jpg)
The world of the is one marked by duty and superstition. One traditional article of clothing that has stood the test of time is their headscarves. The headscarves are adorned with symbols such as the and the , which have the function of bringing luck to the diver and warding off evil. The are also known to create small shrines near their diving location where they will visit after diving in order to thank the gods for their safe return.
The were expected to endure harsh conditions while diving, such as freezing temperatures and great pressures from the depths of the sea. Through the practice, many were noted to lose weight during the months of diving seasons. practiced a breathing technique in which the divers would release air in a long whistle once they resurfaced from a dive. This whistling became a defining characteristic of the , as this technique is unique to them.
In culture
*
James Bond
The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...
travels to Japan in the novel ''
You Only Live Twice''. He meets and becomes involved with
Kissy Suzuki
Kissy Suzuki is a fictional character introduced in Ian Fleming's 1964 ''James Bond'' novel, '' You Only Live Twice''. Despite Bond's womanizing, Kissy Suzuki (at least the literary version) remains the only character known to the reader who bear ...
. The character was also portrayed in the
film version
A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...
.
* The
NHK
, also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee.
NHK operates two terrestr ...
morning television drama centers on a high school girl on the Tohoku region who initially sets out to become an diver.
* ''
The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife
, also known as ''Girl Diver and Octopi'', ''Diver and Two Octopi'', etc., is a woodblock-printed design by the Japanese artist Hokusai. It is included in ('Young Pines'), a three-volume book of erotica first published in 1814, and has become ...
'', an 1814
woodblock print
Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. Each page or image is create ...
by Japanese artist
Hokusai
, known simply as Hokusai, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. He is best known for the woodblock printing in Japan, woodblock print series ''Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'', which includes the ...
, depicts a young diver
entwined sexually with a pair of
octopus
An octopus ( : octopuses or octopodes, see below for variants) is a soft-bodied, eight- limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttle ...
es.
* ''
Ama Girls
''Ama Girls'' is a 1958 American short documentary film produced by Ben Sharpsteen. It was part of Disney's People & Places series. It won an Oscar at the 31st Academy Awards in 1959 for Documentary Short Subject. It is also known as ''Japan H ...
'', a 1958 documentary film; winner of the
Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject
This is a list of films by year that have received an Academy Award together with the other nominations for best documentary short film. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are annou ...
.
* is a Japanese
manga
Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...
series, later adapted into
an anime. Its name is a longer version of the word , and its subject matter involves female divers.
an award-winning 2016 documentary film by Portuguese director Cláudia Varejão, that follows the daily life of three Japanese women who have been diving together, for 30 years, in a small fishing village on the
Shima Peninsula.
See also
* – Female occupational divers in the Korean province of Jeju
*
References
Further reading
*
* Martinez, D. P. (2004)
''Identity and Ritual in a Japanese Village''University of Hawaii Press.
*
Mishima, Yukio (1994). ''
The Sound of Waves
is a 1954 novel by the Japanese author Yukio Mishima. It is a coming-of-age story of the protagonist Shinji and his romance with Hatsue, the beautiful daughter of the wealthy ship owner Terukichi. For this book, Mishima was awarded the Shinch ...
.'' Vintage.
External links
* English
United Nations University (2009) digital video "Where the sea whistle echoes": Ama, legendary women divers of Japan facing climate change and an uncertain futureAccessed 1 December 2009
Ama Cultural Villagein Japanese
* at the Rubicon Foundation
{{Authority control
Japanese words and phrases
Economy of Japan
Fishing industry in Japan
Society of Japan
Pearls
Underwater occupations