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| Haenyeo circa 1953 Robert Neff Collection |
By Robert Neff
Arguably, the most iconic image of Jeju Island in the 20th century was the haenyeo ― the women divers. They were portrayed in newspaper and magazine articles in almost mythical prose ― the sirens of the sea able to dive to great depths who did most of the work while their husbands stayed safely home with the children.
One of the first Americans to explore and spend an extended amount of time on the island was Charles Chaille-Long, the secretary of the American legation in Seoul. He traveled to the island in 1888 and wrote several accounts (official and personal) of his adventure. Despite the accounts being self-aggrandizing they are very interesting, not only because they are rich in detail but also because of what they lack.
Chaille-Long took some interest in the islanders' fishing industry. He described the abalone ― "a monster bivalve" ― that was "greatly prized as an article of food when dried, and the shell furnishes a beautiful nacre or mother of pearl" which was taken to Fusan (modern Busan) where it was then exported to Japan.
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| Although he described them in his book, I believe Bergman purchased this picture (like many others in his book) of the haenyeo and wrote his narrative around it. Sten Bergman, "In Korea Wilds and Villages," published by Travel Book Club in 1938. |
"The Japanese fishermen along the coast have discovered this, and, when they dare, approach and stealthily fish and even barter with the natives, whose prejudices yield at times to the tempting offer of cloths and small wares offered in exchange."
Four years later, another American, Franklin Ohlinger, the editor of The Korea Repository, also reported that there was some trouble at the "sacred domain of Quelpart [an old Western name for Jeju]" where the "quondam gynocracy [had] resorted to violence" in order to repel "over-aggressive Japanese fishermen." It was a brief mention and apparently did not garner much attention despite the number of articles appearing in Japanese newspapers (and copied by American newspapers) of alleged attacks upon Japanese fishermen by the Jeju islanders.
In 1899, two Western missionaries traveled to Jeju and reported that there was an "abundance of pearl oysters and seaweed, which are both used on the island and exported. The pearl oysters are very large some measuring ten inches in diameter, and very fleshy. Unlike other oysters, it has only one shell, which is often used by the Koreans as an ashtray and of which mother of pearl is obtained." They were quick to add that "pearls are but very seldom found in the oyster… [but the oyster's] meat is considered a luxurious dish and one oyster costs as much as six cents on the island."
This delicacy was also prized on the mainland.
"For export the oysters are torn out of the shell; the intestine bag cut off, the meat cleaned, dried and strung on thin sticks. Altho white when fresh the color changes to a dark red, like that of a dried apricot. They can be seen displayed in the native grocery shops in Seoul, flat reddish disks of about four or five inches in diameter fastened by tens with a thin stick stuck thro them."
The oysters were not the only sea products exported ― so, too, was seaweed. According to the missionaries, there were several types of seaweed harvested. One type, gathered along the shore, was very rich in nutrients and was used as fertilizer. There was also seaweed harvested from the bottom of the sea that was used as food and some sold to the Japanese to be used in the manufacture of "carbonate of soda."
The missionaries were rather surprised to discover that the harvesting of seaweed from the sea floor (along with the pearl oysters) was done entirely by women:
"Dressed in a kind of bathing suit with a sickle in one hand and a gourd with a bag tied to it in front of them, they swim out from the shore as far as half a mile; boats cannot be afforded and there dive, probably a depth of forty or fifty feet, to the bottom, cut the weeds with the sickle, or if they find a pearl oyster, tear it off from the stone, and then put it into the bag which is kept floating by the gourd. They don't go back before the bag is filled, which often takes more than half an hour. Altho they are magnificent swimmers, one cannot help admiring their endurance, when he thinks that this work is begun as early as February."
This respect for the women's ability was also tinged with concern that their reign of the sea was coming to an end:
"Of late tho Japanese supplied with diving apparatus, having been coming to Quelpart and catching all the pearl oysters, so that the poor women have to be satisfied with the weeds only. The magistrates told us that these Japanese never asked for permission nor paid anything for catching the pearl oysters. If it is so, the imposition upon the weak Koreans is surprising."
Over the years there were similar sentiments published in newspaper and journal accounts. The Western gold miners in northern Korea often wrote letters home describing the huge shellfish they were able to purchase locally but none of them were as impressive as those claimed to be harvested in the waters off Jeju.
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| Korean women fish for shrimp in the northeastern part of Korea in 1935. Sten Bergman, "In Korea Wilds and Villages." |
In 1915, an American newspaper published in Missouri astonished its readers with an account of Jeju's female divers and their fantastic harvests:
"The Korean pearl diving is in [the haenyeo] hands. They swim ― they don't boat ― they swim out to the pearl fisheries of Quelpart, hugging baskets with them. After this swim of half an hour they dive down fifty feet and fetch up queer one shelled pearl oysters as big as babies. They dive till their baskets are full ― the baskets are corked to keep them afloat ― and after three or four hours work they swim back home with their catch. The big one shelled oysters are valuable as pearl mines and as food too. A half dozen Koreans will sit down to an oyster as [gaily] as you or I sit down to a broiled lobster."
Walter Stotzner, a German explorer and ethnographer who visited the island in 1930, wrote that "many of the women are divers, who bring up from the bottom of the ocean edible seaweed, delicious shellfish and fat lobsters, which they sell to the recently established Japanese cannery. In former days they dived for pearls as well, but the Japanese, who have introduced modern diving apparatus, now control the pearl fisheries and the islanders have to content themselves with the mother of pearl obtained from a species of clam."
Stotzner's observation of the loss of the haenyeo's livelihood is surprisingly frank, especially when we compare it to the observations of Sten Bergman, a Swedish explorer and travel writer, in 1935:
"There were three women bard by on the beach, tall and powerful, with well-shaped bodies. All three wore black bathing dresses, the costume of the divers. Each of them was provided with a large float which consisted of the rind of a cucumber. In addition each had a fishing-net. This was fastened to the float. They all wore divers' spectacles. The three of them now swam off. When they had got a good way out they left the floats on the surface of the water, dived down with their legs kicking about in the air, and vanished from sight. They remained down in the water for a couple of minutes and then came up with both periwinkles and mussels. After resting a little on the surface down they went again. These women divers spend a great part of the day in the sea. As a rule, they remain below for two or three minutes, general in water about six to ten yards deep."
It was a fairly tame description and is bereft of any negative references to the Japanese ― unsurprisingly as he was only on the island for a night and probably did not want to say anything that might upset his Japanese friends or the authorities.
Up until the latter part of the 20th century, the haenyeo were still surrounded by a degree of fetishism. Leonard Lueras traveled to Jeju Island in the early 1980s and soon afterwards wrote an article that appeared in the Pacific ― a magazine that was once published in Hawaii. His writing was rather capricious ― tourist information mixed in with cattiness ― as evidenced by his description of the haenyeo:
"When sea and weather conditions are favorable, scores of the [haenyeo], who range in age from teenagers to wrinkled grandmothers, can be seen bobbing off shore between free dives for seaweed, shellfish and sea urchins. In their slick and black ankle-to-neck wetsuits, face masks and snorkels, they look more like members of underwater demolition teams than the sexy sirens described by Seoul travel agents, but they are still the favorite target of every camera-bearing tourist who visits Quelpart. In recent years, however, these intrepid women have become quite anti-camera ― unless, of course, you are willing to pay an appropriate modeling fee. If you try to take a picture without paying, they shriek loudly, flail the water with their metal gaffs and make unflattering gestures at you."
Although Leuras quoted Frederic Dustin (a longtime resident of the island) several times in his article, he never met Dustin ― the sources of his quotes came from a pamphlet Dustin had written about the island several years prior. Judging from Dustin's notes, he was less-than-pleased with the article's "smart-aleck approach."
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| Cover of "Moon Tides" by Brenda Paik Sunoo published by Seoul Selection in 2011. |
"Each wrinkle on a haenyeo's face is like the ridges and folds she encounters under the sea ― a time capsule of Mother Nature's terrestrial and marine life creations."
While pictures may be worth a thousand words, they are not enough. Sunoo's book is filled with interviews of the haenyeo and their families ― some seem almost like last testimonies. Perhaps they were.
In the 1970s, there were about 15,000 haenyeo; by 2000, the number had fallen to 5,789 and a little over a decade later there were only about 2,500. Sunoo laments that "many [people] believe this may be the last generation of Jeju Island's woman diver." Let's hope they are wrong.
Note
My appreciation to Diane Nars for her valuable assistance and to Brenda Paik Sunoo for her friendship and for her love and respect for Jeju and its inhabitants.
Robert Neff has authored and co-authored several books including, Letters from Joseon, Korea Through Western Eyes and Brief Encounters.
