When I arrive at the entrance of Hachiman-kamado, a women divers' hut in the village of Osatsu along the jagged coastline of the Ise-Shima region in Mie Prefecture, matriarch Reiko Nomura and three of her junior female free divers welcome me with beaming smiles.

The deep crevices etched in Nomura's face seem to tell an ancient story, one of joy and hardship, and intimately connected to the sea and the Japanese tradition of ama, the female free divers that dates back 3,000 years.

The influx in tourism surrounding the Group of Seven Ise-Shima summit in central Japan offers these "women of the sea" a chance to share their tradition with a wider audience, but this is nothing new for Nomura and the other divers who work at Hachiman-kamado. In 2015, there were over 3,800 non-Japanese visitors to this ama hut from more than 23 countries, and the hut even has prayer rooms for Muslim tourists.