Nationwide support pouring in for the Noto area ravaged first by an earthquake and then massive rains this year has led to the rediscovery of historical legacies linked to the northcentral Japanese peninsula.
Part of the assistance for people in the coastal city of Wajima serves as a lasting reminder of a centuries-old legend that began in what is considered one of the birthplaces of the “ama” divers in southwestern Japan.
Photo taken on July 12, 2024, of File photo shows an ama diver fishing for this year’s first catch of “mozuku” seaweed at Wajima Port in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in July 2024. (Kyodo)
Ama — literally “sea women” — are free divers who catch seafood, mostly shellfish like abalones as well as various kinds of seaweeds. The vast majority of them are women and the fishing method has a tradition dating back 2,000 years.
It is believed that the history of the ama on the Sea of Japan side of the Japanese archipelago began in the Kanezaki district of what is now in the city of Munakata, Fukuoka Prefecture.
Historical documents say that about 450 years ago, a group of Kanezaki residents traveled some 700 kilometers along the sea in search of fishing grounds to the Amamachi district in Wajima near the northern tip of the Noto Peninsula, currently part of Ishikawa Prefecture.
Because of the similarities in dialect and customs, the ties between the two regions have only grown stronger since.
Shortly after the powerful New Year’s Day quake, people involved in Munakata’s fishing industry began to seek ways to lend support, thinking they are “linked by fate to their ancestors” in Amamachi — meaning a “town of sea women.”
Tokio Yahiro of the Munakata Fisheries Cooperative Association is pictured in Munakata, Fukuoka Prefecture, in August 2024. (Kyodo)
Led by Tokio Yahiro, 72, head of the Munakata Fisheries Cooperative Association, seven people visited disaster-stricken areas in Noto in April and donated some 5.6 million yen ($37,000) to the Amamachi residents’ association.
Then in June, they made 50 collection boxes for donations using cedar trees given by a local lumber store and placed them at designated rest areas along roads and highways and other places in Munakata city.
Among the seven visitors was Takayuki Ashizu, 61, chief priest of Munakata Taisha, comprising three Shinto shrines. It is part of the World Heritage site designated in 2017 by the United Nations education body UNESCO as “the Sacred Island of Okinoshima and Associated Sites in the Munakata Region.”
“Amamachi and Kanezaki are connected by DNA, and because of this long-standing relationship, we need to support them,” Ashizu said.
The Amamachi township refers to a part of the area near Wajima Port and Hegura Island, located about 50 km from Wajima city.
A fishing boat leaves Wajima Port in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Oct. 1, 2024. (Kyodo)
According to the “Amamachi 350th Anniversary Commemorative Magazine,” a fisherman named Matabei and 12 others left Kanezaki for the Noto Peninsula in 1569 and eventually settled there. They also went to Hegura Island to collect shellfish, seaweed and other seafood to sustain a living.
“I’ve heard that the original family came from Kanezaki,” said Natsuki Kadoki, 43, chairwoman of the Wajima ama divers’ fishing preservation and promotion association.
Both Kanezaki and Amamachi use the same Japanese dialect for words such as fish bones and scrubbing brush.
The shape of the “shimekazari” decorating the entrance at New Year’s is also similar, and both keep them on display throughout the year, unlike the other regions where such decorations customarily last through Jan. 7 to 15 in most cases.
File photo shows ama divers unloading “mozuku” seaweed at Wajima Port after fishing in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in July 2024. (Kyodo)
The Okitsuhime Shrine in Amamachi is said to worship the same deity as Munakata Taisha. The ama divers of Kanezaki are believed to have spread to Shimane, Yamaguchi and Nagasaki prefectures.
When the late Tsuyoshi Yamanaka, a freestyle swimmer from Amamachi, competed in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Kanezaki residents collected donations to support him in his endeavors. Yamanaka won a total of four Olympic medals — all silver — at the 1956 and 1960 Games.
A fishery industry journal published in Kanezaki records that until around 1991, the mayor of Genkai (a town that merged with Munakata in 2003) had frequented Amamachi, while the fishing cooperative in Wajima would pay visits to Kanezaki.
In September, a second disaster struck the Noto Peninsula after record-breaking rainfall. Many houses in Amamachi remain collapsed and the roads covered in mud. Restoration of the fishing port has been slow, and fishing is not possible for days on end for the ama divers. Yahiro hopes fishing there will resume soon.
Takuei Hashimoto, president of the Amamachi neighborhood association in Ishikawa Prefecture’s Wajima, is pictured in Kanazawa on Oct. 3, 2024. (Kyodo)
Takuei Hashimoto, 51, a fisherman and chairman of the Amamachi neighborhood association of about 280 households, lamented about his temporary housing being deluged since the rainfall.
“I don’t know what the future holds for us,” he says. Still, he is grateful for the support from Munakata. “We have a relationship that goes back hundreds of years, but they have not forgotten about us. I can only express my gratitude for their warm support.”