{"id":12906,"date":"2021-06-01T09:36:52","date_gmt":"2021-06-01T02:36:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluejapan.org\/fr\/?p=12906"},"modified":"2021-06-01T13:29:16","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T06:29:16","slug":"ama-divers-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluejapan.org\/fr\/blog\/2021\/06\/01\/ama-divers-part-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Ama divers [part 3]"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The Ama Part 3<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Japan's Professional freedivers<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Names and etymology<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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In Japan, the term ama<\/em> is the best-known term to designate what are now primarily female professional freedivers.
The word most like derives from a common root with the Japanese word for sea, umi<\/strong> \u2013<\/em> a commonly encountered explanation is that it derives from a contraction of ama-bito<\/strong>, <\/em>written in sinograms as [\u6d77\u4eba]<\/strong>, with the meaning \u201csea person<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>

In more ancient times, the word covered people, male and female, involved not just in breath-hold collecting activities but generally in fishing and associated sea-based economic activities \u2013 which mirrors a similar word use in some Okinawan languages, uminchu<\/em><\/strong>, written with the same sinograms [\u6d77\u4eba], \u201csea person\u201d), which does to this day covers people involved sea and fishing related activities.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Nowadays, the word ama<\/em> is most commonly written with a sinogram combination reading \u201csea woman\u201d [\u6d77\u5973] , but another character, created in Japan, \u5870, is sometimes also used.
(since their first introduction in the 5th<\/sup> century, sinogram use has always been very flexible in Japan, especially when used to write indigenous Japonic words).<\/p>

Today, and in the recent past, the vast majority of ama<\/em> divers are\/were indeed women, but this was not always the case.
The word ama<\/em> itself can also be written in a masculine form, with another sinogram combination, [\u6d77\u58eb], which can be read \u201csea man\u201d or \u201csea specialist worker\u201d.<\/p>

Local variations also such as kaito<\/em> in the Izu Peninsula area (Shizuoka Prefecture) for instance, and there are probably others to be found in the local dialects and languages of the archipelago, since ama<\/em> diving cultures existed from northern Honsh\u016b to the southern Ry\u016b-Ky\u016b islands.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Image source: Abalone divers, Utamaro<\/a>
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History <\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The history of ama<\/em> divers is clearly very ancient, speculated to be at least 2000 years old, but probably much older, given the importance of shell mounds<\/a> ([\u8c9d\u585a] kaizuka ) <\/em> from the middle-J\u014dmon period<\/a> onwards, including some shells that were no doubt collected on breath-hold.<\/p>

Freediving activities are also mentioned in the Gishi Wajin Den <\/em>(\u9b4f\u5fd7\u502d\u4eba\u4f1d), a Chinese description of the Japanese islands and their inhabitants, which dates back 285 CE.<\/p>

Ama<\/em> freedivers are first mentioned in literature in the oldest Japanese anthology of poetry, the Man’y\u014dsh\u016b<\/a> (759 CE) and in works of Japan’s Heian period<\/a>.<\/p>

Up to the mid-20th century, female ama divers worked in various levels of undress, which also led to female divers being a recurrent theme in woodblock prints, including many suggestive, erotically-charged representation. <\/p>

Here are some of the more figurative works:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Image source: Utamaro <\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Image source: scalar.usc.edu<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Image source: ukiyo-e.org<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Image source: Utamaro<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Image source: ukiyo-e.org<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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This tradition seems to have found something of an extension with mid-20th century photography.
A number of photos, mostly taken in the early 1960s,\u00a0\u00a0 documenting ama diving activities.
These famous are pictures are mostly attributed to photographers Fosco Maraini<\/a>, (Ishikawa Prefecture’s Hegura-jima, <\/a>on the sea of Japan),\u00a0 Yoshiyuki\u00a0 Iwase<\/a> (the Chiba Prefecture’s Iwawada coast ) and Yoshinobu Nakamura<\/a> (all around Japan)<\/p>

The contrast with modern, wetsuit-wearing amas<\/em> is quite striking.
Looking a little more closely at some of these pictures<\/a>, where most of the young women supposedly working half-naked have barely suntanned skin, whitened teeth and sometimes make-up, and given the time-frame (1960s…), there are reasons to believe that some might actually be professional models who came for a photoshoot in a traditional setting…<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Abalone Divers in Ise Province, Utagawa Hiroshige III, 1877
<\/strong>Image source: www.myjapanesehanga.com<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Next<\/a><\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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More on Japanese Diving History<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Ama divers [part 4]<\/a><\/h5><\/header><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/article>
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Ama divers [part 2]<\/a><\/h5><\/header><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/article>
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[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8823,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"right-sidebar","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"disabled","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[19,24,25,27,22,20,23,21,26,28],"class_list":["post-12906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diving-culture","category-diving-history","tag-ama","tag-amas","tag-apnea","tag-culture","tag-diving","tag-freediving","tag-history","tag-japan","tag-tradition","tag-traditional-diving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluejapan.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluejapan.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluejapan.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluejapan.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluejapan.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12906"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/bluejapan.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13088,"href":"https:\/\/bluejapan.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12906\/revisions\/13088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluejapan.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluejapan.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluejapan.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluejapan.org\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}