Mari

Pottery works, Yenan.

Hawaiian limpet (Cellana exarata nuttall).

loewe s/s 22

Yoshinobu Nakamura • Ama Woman Sea Divers in Japan, 1962.

“One of the lesser-known but fascinating parts of Japanese culture is that of the Ama pearl divers. Ama (海女 in Japanese), literally means ‘woman of the sea’ and is recorded as early as 750 in the oldest Japanese anthology of poetry, the Man’yoshu. These women specialised in freediving some 30 feet down into cold water wearing nothing more than a loincloth. Utilising special techniques to hold their breath for up to 2 minutes at a time, they would work for up to 4 hours a day in order to gather pearls, abalone, seaweed and other shellfish.”