![]() ![]() Instead, they use a special breathing technique called isobue (ocean whistle) to prepare for holding their breath underwater. They are all female, and they use no equipment to dive. Over three days, I explored the rugged coastlines of Ise-Shima to learn about ama culture and Japanese ocean folklore firsthand.Īma divers are an ancient part of the Shima Peninsula, with archeological evidence of their existence dating back at least 3,000 years. It is also home to the ama divers, an ancient tradition of women who breath-dive for abalone, and Ise Jingu, the most sacred Shinto shrine in the whole of Japan. Mie’s Shima Peninsula is a place where salty wind leaves your hair in constant tangles, the air perpetually smells of fish and sun-dried seaweed, and fragments of seashells crunch beneath your shoes and the tyres of your car. In Mie Prefecture, on the south-east coast of Honshu, it is inescapable. Being an island nation, it goes without saying that the ocean has a strong influence on Japanese folklore and culture.
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