Few people know that underwater pearl hunters, who are called ama in Japan, are not strong men, but rather fragile women with flexible bodies, dexterous hands, and unusually hardy. They are able to stay in cold water for a very long time, looking for precious pearl shells at the bottom.
Not of this world
Translated from Japanese, the word "ama" means "woman of the sea." This profession is ancient and has more than 2000 years. Ama for their exceptional abilities can be called people not of this world. They can hold their breath for a long time and sink into the sea abyss, note, without special equipment to a depth of 30 meters! Considering that pearls are not found in all shells, one can imagine how hard this work is.
There are only two places on the globe where you can get very high quality pearls - the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Excellent pearls have been mined in the waters of the bay for several centuries. The prosperity of many villages over the centuries has depended entirely on the successful hunting of ama.
How does it all start?
A good diver among the locals, as a rule, was considered one who was able to dive to a depth of at least 15 meters and be able to hold out underwater for at least a minute. Each woman was entitled to ammunition: a purse woven from wire and a fishing net, a split bamboo stick that was supposed to hang around her neck, and leather gloves.
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The purse was intended for collecting pearls, the diver pinched her nose with a bamboo stick so that water would not penetrate there, and gloves were needed to protect the collectors' fingers from injury.
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From endless diving into the depths of the sea, the body of divers wears out a lot, and even young women of 30-40 years old look like feeble old women: constantly watering eyes, almost complete absence of hearing, trembling hands.
Dangers lie in wait for these women under water. One of them is to be eaten by some marine predator. Sharks, snakes - but you never know of them, all kinds of sea creatures who would like to feast on a fresh fisherman. That is why young ladies-fishers should swim perfectly, show miracles of ingenuity, so as not to jeopardize their lives once again.
One of these tricks was used by divers when rescuing from a shark. Only by raising the clouds of sand from the bottom could the sharp shark teeth be avoided. With a constant risk of being eaten, a diver should make no less than 30 dives, during which she does not eat or drink.
What you need to be able to and know
Only 200-300 years ago, very few people knew about the outlandish ama divers. Nor did they know that they worked, as a rule, without clothes, at best - in a loincloth - fundoshi and a hair band. They were portrayed like that in countless engravings by artists of that time, who wrote in the ukiyo-e style (the direction in the visual arts of Japan).
Until the 1960s, many female divers, especially those living in villages along the Pacific coast of Japan, continued to dive in only fundoshi.
In the villages, the Ama live in their own communities. Long ago, when no one knew about underwater ammunition, ama dived, holding a load weighing 10-15 kilograms, or attached small lead bars to their waist.
Before diving, the diver was tied to the boat with a long rope, the end of which was pulled through the block. Having reached the bottom, the woman freed herself from the load, which was lifted to the surface by a rope, and immediately began to collect her prey. When the time spent under water expired, she pulled on the rope, again lowered into the depths, and she was lifted up.
The modern technique of spearfishing for pearls has not changed significantly, except that the ama are now donning insulated overalls and fins.
By the way, experienced ama-oidzodo, professional divers, are able to dive an average of 50 times in the morning and 50 times in the afternoon. Between dives, they rest and breathe as deeply as possible, ventilating their lungs.
The season begins in May, when the sea water has not yet had time to warm up properly, and ends in early September. For six months, while the precious pearls are being mined, women are freed from all business.
The ama have always had a very good income from the pearls they procured. Working in shallow water, where almost everything is chosen, the diver earned about $ 150 a day, and at a depth of 20 meters - three times more. It is easy to calculate that divers earned tens of thousands of dollars during the season. So it turned out that ama was often the only breadwinner for the family!
Now it is almost impossible to find applicants for such a job. In the town of Shirahama, where 1,500 divers worked half a century ago, there are now less than 300 people left. And their age is very respectable: the youngest is 50, the oldest is 85!
Every year fewer and fewer beautiful "mermaids" go out to fish for pearls - technical progress has reached such godforsaken places. The industrial production of pearls has become more profitable and efficient than the work of ama.
At present, it is difficult to imagine that there are still places where pearl divers work the old fashioned way, diving to great depths without any wetsuits and other underwater equipment, having with them, as before, only a bag and a knife.
One such place has really survived to this day. This is the city of Toba, which is located on Mikimoto Pearl Island. This place is really special: to this day, divers have been working here according to the old method. Toba has become a tourist Mecca. Hundreds of tourists come here to watch the beautiful divers.
The hard, but at the same time not devoid of romance, the work of pearl seekers has earned its "honor roll" in the form of museums and numerous exhibitions, which also found regular visitors. Currently, there are several such places in the world with exhibitions dedicated to the fearless Ama women.
What about the others?
Paying tribute to the brave Japanese women, one cannot but say a few words about pearl mining by other peoples. For example, in Vietnam, pearls are grown on special aquatic plantations. A grain of sand is placed in each shell, with which the mollusc then begins to "work".
When the time is right to check the shells for pearls, workers swim in boats and pull the shell nets out of the water. Vietnamese pearls grown in this way can be bought on the market without any problems. Its price is relatively low. The price of Thai pearls is even lower than that of Vietnamese. It is grown on special farms.
Jewelry from the Middle Kingdom
The land of the Great Wall and the fiery dragons is considered to be the first to search for pearls. They took it out from the bottom of the sea, not only in order to then string it on a string, make beads and sell it, but also for medicinal purposes. Ancient Chinese medicine is wise. The principle of using everything that nature gives as a medicine has always been at the forefront of Chinese physicians.
In China, pearls are still used as a base for special ointments and face creams. There are no professional catchers in China anymore, since pearls have long been grown artificially. The difference with Vietnamese technology is very minor. Here, nets with pearl oysters are tied to bamboo poles and kept in fresh water.
Russian pitched pearls
Once Russia was in the forefront of countries rich in pearls. Everybody wore it, including the poorest peasants. It was mainly mined on northern rivers, but there was also a Black Sea pearl, the so-called Kafa pearl (Kafa is the old name of Feodosia).
Especially a lot of pearls were obtained from the shells of the Muna River on the Kola Peninsula. Mainly monasteries were involved in organizing the craft. Round pearls without protrusions and outgrowths were especially appreciated. They were called "pitched", that is, easily rolling down an inclined surface. The extraction of pearls has acquired such proportions that in 1712 Peter the Great forbade private individuals from conducting this business by a special decree.
Unfortunately, the barbaric prey gave its results: it led to the depletion of the reserves of pearl shells. And now Russian pearls can only be seen in museums.
Svetlana DENISOVA