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Freediving fisherwomen of Toba, Japan, preserve an ancient tradition

STORYJacqueline Tsang
The funado style of ama diving involves a pair of people - the ama and the boatman, who are often husband and wife. Ama who practise the funado style of diving often use heavy weights and dive deeper in the sea than the kachido ama who swim from the shore andwork alone. Photos: Jacqueline Tsang; Sea-Folk Museum, Toba City, Mie
The funado style of ama diving involves a pair of people - the ama and the boatman, who are often husband and wife. Ama who practise the funado style of diving often use heavy weights and dive deeper in the sea than the kachido ama who swim from the shore andwork alone. Photos: Jacqueline Tsang; Sea-Folk Museum, Toba City, Mie

A remote community of fisherwomen in Toba, Japan, are fiercely committed to protecting the ocean and its wildlife

There is something rare and quite wonderful about people adhering to a tradition more than a thousand years old. At a time when the race for profit has led to severe overfishing worldwide, the discovery that there is a remote community of fisherwomen in Toba, Japan, fiercely committed to protecting the ocean and its wildlife, is at once surprising and deeply inspiring. These women are known as ama.

Shigeyo Nakayama is 69 years old, but that hasn't stopped her from freediving to the ocean's depths up to 90 times each day, 70 days a year, for the past 50 years . "What I do is so rewarding," she says, just hours after her last dive. "I bring my catch to the market and earn a respectable living, as well as the respect and admiration of others in the community."

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The ama today wear wetsuits with weight belts and use modern fishing nets, in contrast to the white outfits and wooden buckets used from the end of the Meiji period to the early Showa period.
The ama today wear wetsuits with weight belts and use modern fishing nets, in contrast to the white outfits and wooden buckets used from the end of the Meiji period to the early Showa period.

The term ama in its very earliest form means "sea folk", but over the years the characters have changed and the modern usage is gender-specific, best translated as "sea woman".

The community is tight-knit, and one of its most admirable qualities is its steadfast commitment to observing its own, self-imposed restrictions.

The rules vary between regions in Japan, but in general, ama are limited to fishing on only 60 to 70 days a year, for 60 to 90 minutes on each of those days. These laws were created in part to protect the ama from adverse weather and tidal conditions, but primarily to ensure the sustainability of its ocean wildlife.

A stunning view of the islands and waters around Toba.
A stunning view of the islands and waters around Toba.

"The Shima Peninsula [where Toba is located] has a community of 800 active ama, about half the total of the entire ama population in Japan. This is because the marine ecosystem is rich and healthy, ideal for sustaining abalone, turban snails, seaweed and sea urchins. This would not be possible if the community didn't self-regulate and abide by their own laws," says Yoshikata Ishihara, director of the Sea-Folk Museum in Toba.

"They are prohibited from fishing during the spawning season. They also carry measuring tools with them as they fish, to ensure that the abalone are at least 10.6cm, which means the shellfish is at least five years old."

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