Page 174 - Dark Matter Women Witnessing

Notes:

This excerpt from my short story, “Ama no Musume (Daughters of the Ocean-Woman),”

is based on experiences of several real and historical ama in Japan’s Mie and Shima

Prefectures. They are accurately presented to the best of my knowledge. These all-

women subsistence free-divers struggle to protect their nonhuman kin – the ocean itself

as well as the sea creatures who are their prey – even at the expense of relations with

their human kin. It’s entirely true, for instance, that while plundering the ocean for all

she’s worth would make their lives less difficult, the ama protectively impose harsh

restrictions on their practices. This story attempts to describe the ama’s history,

techniques, and challenges. It envisions their yearnings through one diver’s eyes as the

ama find themselves caught up in love and despair over their mother-ocean. The latter

part of the story, which is not included here, speculates on the ama’s future as their

snail-daughters, their prey, decline.

All photos are by Nina Poppe, creator of the photo-book ama (Kehrer Verlag). Her

portraits of these amazing women and their environment have been exhibited in several

European galleries. She lives in Germany. I am very grateful to her for allowing her fine

work to appear alongside this excerpt.