Ama 海女

↑  by Fosco Maraini (via)

↑ by Eishin Osaki (via)

 

↑ by Yoshiyuki Iwase (via)

The ideas and fishing practices of the Ama pearl divers are so different from the ones used in the community where I live. These ladies are so legendary to me. They have such a strong faith in nature and the ocean. The picture above gives me a great feeling of summer and what is like to be a human.

"Ama – The Pearl Diving Mermaids of Japan"

One of the lesser-known but fascinating parts of Japanese culture is that of the Ama pearl divers. Ama (海女 in Japanese), literally means ‘woman of the sea’ and is recorded as early as 750 in the oldest Japanese anthology of poetry, the Man’yoshu. These women specialised in freediving some 30 feet down into cold water wearing nothing more than a loincloth. Utilising special techniques to hold their breath for up to 2 minutes at a time, they would work for up to 4 hours a day in order to gather abalone, seaweed and other shellfish. ...

- Michael Gakuran (via)

This is an awesome short documentary on the Ama and features a great interview with a real live woman of the sea!


I highly recommend checking out this article ("Ama – The Pearl Diving Mermaids of Japan") by Michael Gakuran if you'd like to learn more!

Fishin' Fer Squids

      This week I went squid fishin. We caught a baby tuna and two little pollocks. Tuna was very angry and burped and squirmed a lot, and the Pollocks got caught in the eyeballs and became floaters. We set out, bushy tailed for some squids, but just ended up eating/chumming the water with a bag of cool ranch Doritos.