Ama Fisherwoman, What Are You?

Words Adam Blakey
Photo Dustin Humphrey

I once heard a theory that people who smoke cones have a greater lung capacity than those who don’t because punching a few corkscrews forces you to stretch your chest fillets way further than usual. If there is any truth to this then the legendary Ama divers of Japan must be ripping into the bucketbongs like an army of Snoop Dogs on the way to a Cheech and Chong movie marathon. While I suspect the theory is a hoax, the Ama (which translates to ‘women of the sea’) are anything but, and can easily go without air for up to 90 seconds on the strength of a single breath. Armed with a club-like stick, bucket or net they make their living collecting abalone, seaweed and shellfish, without the aid of any breathing apparatus, sometimes up to ten metres below the surface. And while their methods of harvest have remained almost unchanged for 1500 years, the uniform has been through several incarnations - from traditional topless diving, to all-white see-through jumpsuits, to the bright reds and oranges of today (easy to see from the surface should one of the Ama experience trouble below). Once capable of earning up to $100,000 a season (roughly six months work), the women now make between $100 and $500 a week, but most own more than comfortable properties and experience far greater freedom than their sisters. It’s unfortunate that as tradition continues to wane, numbers of new Ama decline each year - the average age right now is 65. In a land where you can buy eye drop funnels from vending machines or see grown men dressed as Shirley Temple on the streets of Harajuku, little snippets like this one of pure uninfluenced Japanese culture are too precious to pass up. Unless someone’s shouting billies.