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The Heian gentlewoman Sei Shōnagon had a fear of boats. She spent most of her life in walled gardens or fancy carriages and believed that "a boat is no way for people of quality to travel". It was rare she had need to travel over water, and doing so always made her distinctly uneasy. While she admired people who could strike a moving pose while standing confidently on deck, she herself saw boat travel as beneath her and a source of fear. When describing the perils of boats in her masterpiece The Pillow Book, a collection of her musings on life and poetry, she wrote:

A stretch of water may seem terrifying, but your spirits sink still further at the thought of the fisher girls who dive for shells. If that thin rope tied to their waist ever snapped, whatever would they do? It would be all very well if it were men doing the diving, but it must feel miserable for women. The men are on board, singing away lustily, moving the boat along with the women's waist ropes dangling into the water. You'd imagine they'd be feeling full of anxiety and trepidation. Apparently, when the woman wants to come up to the surface she tugs on the rope, and you can quite see why the men should scramble to pull her up as fast as possible. Even an onlooker must weep salt tears to witness the gasp of the woman as she breaks surface and lays her hand on the edge of the boat - really, I find it utterly astonishing to see those men sending the poor women overboard while they float lazily about on the surface!

Her account of the fisher girl, or ama ("sea woman"), is one of the few times Shōnagon expresses genuine sympathy for a woman of the working class. Her general disdain for commoners is overcome by her horror at seeing women free dive into the ocean, a place which held much fear for an upper-class woman who hated travelling by water. It's also typical of Shōnagon's writing to side with a woman who she sees as doing all the work while men laze about, particularly lower-class men who she had little time for.

Shōnagon's perception of the ama as being miserable, however, is probably a projection of her own fear of boats rather than the true feelings of an ama, with whom she never would have spoken. Ama had already been free-diving in Japan for up to a thousand years before Shōnagon ever saw one, and would continue to do so for the next thousand years right up to the present day. Women from certain coastal communities started learning the special free-diving technique as teenagers. It's thought that women have been favoured over men for this job because the distribution of fat in their bodies made them more robust in the face of cold waters. Ama traditionally wear white because it is believed to ward off sharks, and the white cloth wrapped around their heads before modern diving goggles often bore Buddhist prayers for protection. They practice specialized breathing techniques which enable them to dive up to sixty feet and are thought to contribute to their long lives - many ama continue diving well into their eighties. When they are pulled back up to the surface, they make a special whistle called isobue which helps them avoid the bends.

Contrary to Shōnagon's conclusion that the ama must find their lot in life terrible, modern-day ama interviewed today usually report that their work is full of joy, exhiliration, and challenge, as they dive underwater to hunt for pearls, abalone shells, sea urchins, and other treasures of the ocean. Other than the introduction of more modest clothing and strict limits on the diving season out of concern for environmental issues, the work of the ama today has changed little from what women would have done in Shōnagon's time. Although they are best known today for finding pearls, in the Heian period their most prized find was abalone, whose iridescent shells were used in imperial shrines. Although Shōnagon and others at court occasionally referenced the ama in their poetry, they were far more familiar with the luxury end product than they were with the inner lives of the women who dove into the cold water in search of the precious shells. If the ama Shōnagon saw while travelling was anything like the women who do that job today, she was no doubt thrilled every time she spotted an abalone shell and took pride in her skilled work.

The idea for this illustration came to me while I was rereading The Pillow Book on the train at the start of May while I was speeding along the coast. Looking out at the water, I was inspired to learn more about the ama and draw one for this series! The ama in my illustration has just spotted an abalone shell which she will dig out before tugging the rope to come back up to the surface. Some great photographs of ama were taken in the early 20th century which I was able to use as a reference - that was back when they wore the traditional loincloths. Watching videos on YouTube about modern-day ama also gave me lots of inspiration for the composition and for how to draw the plants, which was the most challenging part of this picture. This illustration was also inspired by Mermay, which I've always enjoyed but never participated in before! It was also challenging to colour an underwater scene for the first time. The scanner changed the colours a bit, but overall I think it came out pretty well.

Learn more on the Women of 1000 AD website: womenof1000ad.weebly.com/ama.h…

Others in the Series
Sei Shōnagon
Oni Oluwo
Princess Olith
Coniupuyara
Sitt al-Mulk and Taqarrub
The Mother of Pueblo Bonito
Gudridr Thorbjarnardottir and Thorbjorgr Litlvolva
The Weaver of Xuenkal
Niguma
Guni
Bonna
The Oneota Messenger
Empress Chengtian
The Pilgrim of Pariti
Queen Gurandukht
Mwana Mkisi
Raingarde
Sahiqat
Jigonsaseh

Description
The Heian gentlewoman Sei Shōnagon had a fear of boats. She spent most of her life in walled gardens or fancy carriages and believed that "a boat is no way for people of quality to travel". It was rare she had need to travel over water, and doing so always made her distinctly uneasy. While she admired people who could strike a moving pose while standing confidently on deck, she herself saw boat travel as beneath her and a source of fear. When describing the perils of boats in her masterpiece The Pillow Book, a collection of her musings on life and poetry, she wrote:

A stretch of water may seem terrifying, but your spirits sink still further at the thought of the fisher girls who dive for shells. If that thin rope tied to their waist ever snapped, whatever would they do? It would be all very well if it were men doing the diving, but it must feel miserable for women. The men are on board, singing away lustily, moving the boat along with the women's waist ropes dangling into the water. You'd imagine they'd be feeling full of anxiety and trepidation. Apparently, when the woman wants to come up to the surface she tugs on the rope, and you can quite see why the men should scramble to pull her up as fast as possible. Even an onlooker must weep salt tears to witness the gasp of the woman as she breaks surface and lays her hand on the edge of the boat - really, I find it utterly astonishing to see those men sending the poor women overboard while they float lazily about on the surface!

Her account of the fisher girl, or ama ("sea woman"), is one of the few times Shōnagon expresses genuine sympathy for a woman of the working class. Her general disdain for commoners is overcome by her horror at seeing women free dive into the ocean, a place which held much fear for an upper-class woman who hated travelling by water. It's also typical of Shōnagon's writing to side with a woman who she sees as doing all the work while men laze about, particularly lower-class men who she had little time for.

Shōnagon's perception of the ama as being miserable, however, is probably a projection of her own fear of boats rather than the true feelings of an ama, with whom she never would have spoken. Ama had already been free-diving in Japan for up to a thousand years before Shōnagon ever saw one, and would continue to do so for the next thousand years right up to the present day. Women from certain coastal communities started learning the special free-diving technique as teenagers. It's thought that women have been favoured over men for this job because the distribution of fat in their bodies made them more robust in the face of cold waters. Ama traditionally wear white because it is believed to ward off sharks, and the white cloth wrapped around their heads before modern diving goggles often bore Buddhist prayers for protection. They practice specialized breathing techniques which enable them to dive up to sixty feet and are thought to contribute to their long lives - many ama continue diving well into their eighties. When they are pulled back up to the surface, they make a special whistle called isobue which helps them avoid the bends.

Contrary to Shōnagon's conclusion that the ama must find their lot in life terrible, modern-day ama interviewed today usually report that their work is full of joy, exhiliration, and challenge, as they dive underwater to hunt for pearls, abalone shells, sea urchins, and other treasures of the ocean. Other than the introduction of more modest clothing and strict limits on the diving season out of concern for environmental issues, the work of the ama today has changed little from what women would have done in Shōnagon's time. Although they are best known today for finding pearls, in the Heian period their most prized find was abalone, whose iridescent shells were used in imperial shrines. Although Shōnagon and others at court occasionally referenced the ama in their poetry, they were far more familiar with the luxury end product than they were with the inner lives of the women who dove into the cold water in search of the precious shells. If the ama Shōnagon saw while travelling was anything like the women who do that job today, she was no doubt thrilled every time she spotted an abalone shell and took pride in her skilled work.

The idea for this illustration came to me while I was rereading The Pillow Book on the train at the start of May while I was speeding along the coast. Looking out at the water, I was inspired to learn more about the ama and draw one for this series! The ama in my illustration has just spotted an abalone shell which she will dig out before tugging the rope to come back up to the surface. Some great photographs of ama were taken in the early 20th century which I was able to use as a reference - that was back when they wore the traditional loincloths. Watching videos on YouTube about modern-day ama also gave me lots of inspiration for the composition and for how to draw the plants, which was the most challenging part of this picture. This illustration was also inspired by Mermay, which I've always enjoyed but never participated in before! It was also challenging to colour an underwater scene for the first time. The scanner changed the colours a bit, but overall I think it came out pretty well.

Learn more on the Women of 1000 AD website: womenof1000ad.weebly.com/ama.h…

Others in the Series
Sei Shōnagon
Oni Oluwo
Princess Olith
Coniupuyara
Sitt al-Mulk and Taqarrub
The Mother of Pueblo Bonito
Gudridr Thorbjarnardottir and Thorbjorgr Litlvolva
The Weaver of Xuenkal
Niguma
Guni
Bonna
The Oneota Messenger
Empress Chengtian
The Pilgrim of Pariti
Queen Gurandukht
Mwana Mkisi
Raingarde
Sahiqat
Jigonsaseh