Massimo Colombo

Photographer
     
Ama, the sea women
Location: Lecco, Italy
Nationality: Italian
Biography: Based in Italy, Massimo Colombo is a freelance. Professional photographer who specializes in travel, commercial and lifestyle photography. Contributor . Active Associate ( Associazione Italiana Reporter Fotografi) Massimo works on a commission... MORE
Public Story
Ama, the sea women
Copyright massimo colombo 2024
Date of Work May 2016 - May 2016
Updated Jul 2019
Location Toba, Japan
Topics turism, japan, travel, traditional, culture


Toba, Japan - May 19, 2016.

Ama are Japanese divers, after dressing themselves in wetsuits and swimming hats, they're going to fish seafood.

Japanese tradition holds that the practice of Ama may be 2,000 years old [1]. 

These women, whose fishing technique consists of immersing themselves underwater looking mainly for seafood and seaweed,have kept this ancient tradition alive against the odds.

The Ama have survived to the great modern changes transforming this ancient activity in a sort of folkloristic business ("off the beaten path")

Tourists now come to observe the Ama in all phases of their work: from fishing to fish consumption, cooked in their traditional huts.


cf. 1 Rahn, H.; Yokoyama, T. (1965). Physiology of Breath-Hold Diving and the Ama of Japan. United States: National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council. p. 369. ISBN 0-309-01341-0.


Toba, Japan-19 maggio 2016.

La pratica della pesca condotta dalle "donne di mare", dette Ama, in Giappone è antichissima, risale almeno a duemila anni fa [1].

Mentre un tempo era pienamente inserita nel contesto economico della comunità, oggi, mutatis mutandis, tale pratica è quasi interamente rivolta ai turisti.

Queste donne, la cui tecnica di pesca consiste nell'immersione subacquea alla ricerca prevalentemente di frutti di mare e alghe, sono sopravvissute ai grandi mutamenti moderni trasformando questa antichissima attività in una sorta di pratica folcloristica, nella quale è possibile osservare le Ama in tutte le fasi del loro lavoro: dalla pesca al consumo del pesce, cucinato nei loro tradizionali capanni.

cf. 1 Rahn, H.; Yokoyama, T. (1965). Physiology of Breath-Hold Diving and the Ama of Japan. United States: National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council. p. 369. ISBN 0-309-01341-0.
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