For generations, the ama—Japan’s women free-divers—have occupied a powerful place in the country’s cultural imagination. Diving without oxygen tanks, they harvest abalone, shellfish, and seaweed, whose sale provides them with economic autonomy within their families. Beginning in the mid-1950s, Kusukazu Uraguchi devoted more than three decades to photographing these women in the Shima area along Japan’s Pacific coastline.

Drawn from an extensive body of nearly 40,000 negatives—most of which had never been shown before—this extraordinary archive of seascapes, portraits, and underwater scenes documents both the everyday rhythms of the divers’ lives and the distinctive role their community holds within Japanese society.

Uraguchi’s photographs evoke tradition while also reflecting modern transformation. In the decades following the war, rapid urban expansion profoundly altered rural Japan, and the ama communities were not immune to these shifts. Through his striking use of high-contrast black and white, his dynamic framing choices, and his sensitivity to unguarded gestures, Uraguchi conveys a sense of physical freedom, collective strength, and fierce independence.

To illuminate the complexity of this body of work, the images are accompanied by an essay by Sonia Voss, exploring the enigmatic world of the ama, and a text by Chihiro Minato, situating Uraguchi’s practice within the broader history of photography. A glossary inspired by the research of Japanese ethnologist Kiyoko Segawa further deepens understanding of the technical vocabulary and rich traditions associated with fishing and diving.