For more than three thousand years, ama, the Japanese “women of the sea,” have populated the shores of the archipelago, free-diving for seaweed and abalone. Their special place in the Japanese imagination, their sensual connection to the water, their fearlessness and sovereignty have fascinated poets and artists for centuries. Japanese photographer Uraguchi Kusukazu, a native of Shima (Mie Prefecture) on the Pacific Coast, devoted over thirty years to documenting the lives of the ama in his region, in their most diverse aspects: deep-sea dives, harvests near the shore, portraits, collective scenes on the beach and in the amagoya—an exclusively female enclave—and their daily relationship with Shintoism, culminating in the summer at the time of the matsuri (summer festivals). His photographs illuminate the age-old practices of the ama, capturing their energy at every moment. Nurtured by their vitality and the trust they bestowed on him, he developed a visual language marked by intensity and expressivity: contrasting blacks and whites, de-framings, gestures captured in their genuine spontaneity anchor the ama in their era—mainly the 1960s to the 1980s—while paying homage to their powerful, assertive femininity.

Comprising tens of thousands of photographs devoted to the subject, the Uraguchi archive has remained unexplored since his death. This is the starting point for a hitherto unseen exhibition, which takes us on a journey to meet extraordinary women whose harmonious interaction with their environment are a source of inspiration today. This rediscovery also enables us to approach Japanese photography through one of the essential aspects of its history, that of amateur practice, of which Uraguchi, through his involvement in various photo-club networks, was an extraordinary representative.

Sonia Voss