The Long History of the Women Divers of Shima

Without oxygen tanks, ama (“sea women”) dive into the ocean to harvest the riches of the sea with only their bodies. Working vigorously, these women of the sea still exist today all across Japan, despite there being considerably fewer today than in the past. Among those that remain, many active ama are in the cities of Toba and Shima in Mie Prefecture. Following the history of the ama that were nurtured in this region, it is said that the custom began over 2,000 years ago. We visited the Toba Sea-folk Museum in Toba and went to see ama in the Wagu area of the town of Shima to investigate the ama culture that exists to this day.

The Work of Feminine and Elegant, Yet Powerful, Ama

They enter the ocean without equipment, search for the location with the riches they seek using experience and their professional intuition, and then they harvest the goods.

When you think about that process, it makes the ama occupation more wild and powerful than even that of a fisherman. Mitsuhashi Mayumi, who began in her early thirties and is still active today, tells us why she became an ama.

“I have been an ama for about 38 years. I decided to become an ama when I started thinking about work environments while raising my children. I thought, if I got a regular job, it would be hard to take days off, but ama set their own schedules, and if I worked hard, I could make more money than if I worked a part-time job. But when I actually tried, diving was completely different from swimming. It was hard to turn my body upside down and dive straight down. There wasn’t anyone to teach my how to do it, so I learned how to dive and harvest by mimicking others.”

They dive into the water for one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon in March and April, increasing that time by thirty minutes each time from May to September. Attaching 5 kg weights to their bodies, they enter the sea, searching for abalone, horned turbans, and other mollusks while pushing their way through seaweed, at times using rocks and chisels to gather the mollusks. But they must execute these series of actions with great ease while holding their breath for about 50 seconds, making it extremely physically demanding.

“Desire and will power might be important for ama. If you think about relaxing, you can do so as much as you like, so you have to restrain yourself or you can’t be an ama. I create an objective and dive in a way that allows me to achieve that objective. We don’t say it out loud, but the other ladies who go out into the sea are my rivals, even though we are good friends, when we come back to the ama huts and eat food around the fire together! The older ama who dive into the sea with me taught me common sense and thoughtfulness towards others. When I think of all of this, I am glad I became an ama.”

The Work of Ama, Vital to Eating Habits and Religious Rituals

But when did amas first arrive? We asked Hiraka Okura, curator of the Toba Sea-folk Museum, a museum that owns 60,000 artifacts related to the history of the sea and the fishermen, ama, sailors, and others who lived near the sea. Surprisingly, he stated that, “The word isn’t that old, having been created by taking the character for sea (海) and woman (女) and first pronouncing them as ‘ama’ about 100 years ago.” He continues.

Sure enough, there is something call noshi-awabi, or thin strips of dried abalone, that are offered at Ise Shrine. They have been made from abalone caught along the shores of Kuzaki since ancient times. Up until 1871, ama in the area gathered and harvested abalone for the offering in an act known as mikazuki shinji, or “the holy diving ritual”.
Elsewhere, the marine products harvested by ama are vital to what is dedicated at a variety of shrines. We can see how ama have flourished from the fact that they are in such demand. But Mr. Hiraka tells us that ama trace their roots of diving and harvesting back even further.

“The shells of abalone and horned turbans show up in the remains from Shirahama in Goza. There are three types of abalone, each of them growing in differing depths of the sea. However, the shells found here were from the type that grow in the deepest parts, so the only conclusion that can be drawn is that someone dove in the sea and harvested them. Tools made from deer antlers were also found, perhaps having been used in the Yayoi Era to scrape the abalone from the rocks.”

It seems that what could be called the prototype for ama culture existed long ago. It’s unclear whether it was men or women who did the diving, but Mayumi went on.

“In this area, it would be hard to dive if the person wasn’t a woman. Looking at how our bodies are made, men wouldn’t be able to stand the cold. It has been said since ancient times that ama exist because women have more fat on their bodies and are more resistant Nowadays, ama wear wetsuits, but in the past, they only wore something called ama-chaku, which didn’t offer any heat retention, so I think it was quite cold.”

It is said that the pure white ama-chaku that ama wore up until around 1955 played a role in repelling sharks. Since being in the ocean means one is always near danger, the amas used a star-shaped charms on their beach towels, known as seman and a lattice pattern known as doman, as good luck charms to ward off evil as they wrapped their bodies in them. Even today, with ama clothing having changed, it is normal for ama to wear these beach towels around their heads. In addition to being convenient, these towels are part of a tradition of valuing prayers and other unseen things, and it is fitting for a tradition like this to remain in Mie, a prefecture that has a close relationship with the Ise Shrine. It may even be something quite Japanese, a country where 8 million gods exists in everyday life.

However, the reality is that the number of amas are decreasing throughout the years. The tradition also faces the problem of having a lack of successors. Mayumi tells us that the marine environment has also changed quite a lot compared to what it used to be.

“Recently, there has been a decrease in a type of seaweed called arame, the main food source of abalone. Without food, of course, we cannot grow abalone, so I am concerned. In the past, ama’s backs would get sore from having to push through all the seaweed, but nowadays, you can see the abalone from the surface.”

I wonder if there are any changes that are visible to the ama, who see beneath the sea every day. These women work to maintain order so that the marine environment changes as little as possible, including always leaving small abalone without harvesting them. All we can do is hope that the actions of these women will lead to small improvements in the marine environment.

Amas, who have continued to gaze at the environment under the sea, are a rare part of Japanese culture that has continued to exist together with some of its primitive traditions still intact. This is perhaps because their work is both a marvel and hopes of people from long ago that have been passed down.