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JAPANESE CULTURE AND TRADITIONS
The Ama — 5,000-Year Tradition of Awe-Inspiring Female Freedivers
An ancient practice on the verge of extinction
For millennia, strong women along the coasts of Japan have lived off the bounty of the sea — which they gathered from the sea floor by hand. These women are called ama.
Ama, 海女 or “sea women,” engage in the ancient practice of freediving. Without air tanks, these divers forage on the seafloor and among reefs for sea creatures and seaweed. This tradition has endured for 3,000–5,000 years, tracing its origins to the hunter-gatherers of the Jomon Period. Unlike their ancestors, modern-day ama wear wetsuits, fins, and goggles, but the fundamental diving techniques remain unchanged.
Ama divers descend to depths of 20 meters (60 feet) in frigid water. They remain submerged for up to two minutes at a time, during which they search out and gather sea cucumbers, seaweed, abalone, and other shellfish. An experienced ama can collect as many as ten sea urchins in a single dive.
When they come up for air between dives, an ama’s forceful exhalations make a high-pitched sound called isobue, meaning sea whistle. This type of exhaling is said to cleanse their lungs of carbon dioxide to make room for the deep intake of…
