The books cover has a sort of eerie photo of diving women. Whats that about?
Ah, yes, the Ama women of Japan. They’ve been around for 2,000 years. It’s such an onerous profession. They’re diving for abalone and shellfish and for the mother-of-pearl shells. The highly trained ones, the funado, dive to about 20 meters [66 feet] deep. They have a large weight attached that enables them to go down to the bottom. They dive down with a rope tied around their waist, and they have a small basket that they fill with the prime delicacies of Japan. And then a male assistant hauls up the basket, and the woman may fill more baskets, depending how long she can hold her breath. Then she’s pulled up to the top by the assistant. At that depth, you do need someone to help you up, because as you dive, the air in your lungs compresses and you tend to sink. One lady-in-waiting at the court of the Japanese empress a thousand years ago described the fact that the women are the ones doing all the work. They are diving down into the cold, having to hold their breath, and then come up s
