This is Ama diver’s festival honoring the island’s Shirahige-Daimyojin, guardian deity of the island. This is a major festival of Ise-Shima passed down for hundreds of years by the islanders. The festival site, “Shirongohama,”is a fishing prohibited area except on the festival day and, signaled by the sound of the conch shell trumpet, woman shell divers dive and compete to catch a pair of male and female abalone.
A pair of male and female abalone is called “maneki-awabi” and the first diver to catch them is regarded as the chief Ama diver for the year, and is said to be guaranteed a bountiful year.