Bearing torches that lit up the evening as they swam out into the ocean, Japan’s storied ama prayed for an ample catch in a ceremony that has been held by these feminine free divers for many years.
This 12 months, nonetheless, a lot of the 80 white-clad individuals within the weekend occasion in Minamiboso, Chiba Prefecture, had been volunteers, as age and disinterest have lowered the variety of ladies prepared to make a livelihood out of this sort of diving on this fishing group.
Japan is house to the world’s oldest inhabitants, and the variety of feminine ama, a Japanese phrase that means sea-diving fishers, fell to only 40 final 12 months within the Shirahama district in Minamiboso, down 70% from 2006, in response to a neighborhood fisheries cooperative.