Abalone Divers off the Coast of Ise

Ama — female divers — harvesting abalone off Ise, work they traditionally did and which is genuinely hard. The print shows three stages at once: one diver going in, one holding her breath while prying a shell off the rock with a blade, and a third surfacing.

Abalone were worth the effort twice over: edible, and lined with mother-of-pearl. From an untitled landscape series Kunisada made in the early 1830s, at a point when he was outselling Hokusai and Hiroshige comfortably.