Mermaid

The Kachido 2007

Kozyndan (Kozue and Dan Kitchens)

The Japanese 'ama' (woman of the sea) dives for seaweed, shellfish and abalone. Traditionally, the divers are women, as their body composition can withstand the cold of the sea better than men. For more than a thousand years, a loincloth, bucket and a stick (to pry mollusks from rocks) was the uniform for diving, but since the 1960's, shirts and shorts or robes are typically worn. The divers spend as long as four hours a day in the chilly, silent waters.