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Japan’s ‘ama’ grannies cling to their freediving fishing tradition
TOBA, Japan, Nov 23, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – 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” — freediving
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 scrutinises 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.
Out at sea, the women set up their rings and then dip beneath the surface,
sometimes holding their breath for more than a minute. They tirelessly
resurface and dive over and over, dozens of times a session.
– ‘No longer viable’ –
Only 2,000 ama are left across Japan, down from more than 12,000 in the
1930s, according to records kept by a marine museum in Toba.
MORE/MR/ 1047 hrs
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The profession still exists in South Korea, where the divers are known as
haenyo, but their numbers are also shrinking.
Historical artefacts suggest the tradition in Japan dates back “at least
3,000 years,” said Shuzo Kogure, an ama specialist and researcher at the
Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology.
And while the profession has never been restricted to women, it is the
female ama who have attracted the most attention.
Old photos and postcards depict the divers fishing topless, a practice that
ended in the 20th century but remains associated with the ama and the idea of
them as “exotic objects of fantasy”, said Kogure.
But cliches aside, the women have long worked hard to feed their families
in isolated rural regions where other types of jobs were limited.
“In the old days, young women would become ama when they left middle
school,” like a rite of passage, explained Sakichi Okuda, director of the
local fishing cooperative.
Like Koguchi and her older sister, who dive together, they usually learned
the basics from a relative at a young age.
The sisters are part of an ama lineage that stretches back through their
mother and grandmother, but their skills will not be passed on to the next
generation — their children have left for the city, in search of more stable
jobs.
Okuda admits that “it is no longer viable to take on this job.”
To preserve the culture, “we have to answer the question of how we can
increase the revenue of these divers.”
– ‘Moments of freedom’ –
The women, some of whom even walk with their backs bent over with age,
acknowledge the work is poorly paid and dangerous.
“Of course I would love the kids to take over, but I know that being an ama
diver is a difficult job and I don’t recommend it, even to my own children,”
says Koguchi’s sister Michiko Hashimoto.
She sits warming herself up around a fire in a the hut where the women
gather after fishing to catch up and recharge.
“If we want to protect and transmit the values of the ama, their way of
life, we have to open the door to strangers, beyond the tradition of passing
things through the family,” said Kogure.
“If we can accept that change, then the future need not be so dark,” the
expert said, adding that the government and local authorities should offer
financial support to the divers.
In the neighbouring village of Osatsu, young recruits are eagerly welcomed.
Ayami Nagata, a 39-year-old mother of five, began her ama training last
year, following in the footsteps of her grandmother.
“I don’t know how to swim, but I am practising in shallow areas to start
with,” she said.
She isn’t joining the profession for the money: each catch goes for only
around 10,000 yen ($88).
For Nagata it’s about escape: “these moments of freedom far from the
family.”
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1047 hrs