In the corner of a dive shop in a small city on the tip of the Boso Peninsula two hours' drive northeast of Tokyo, there is a shrine dedicated to Jacques Mayol, the French free diver immortalized in Luc Besson's 1983 film, "The Big Blue," who hanged himself last December.
Four men are sitting around this shrine, which consists of Mayol's diving mask, snorkel and fins; half a glass of red wine; two dolphin figurines -- one wooden and one stone; and a traditional Japanese umbrella. The centerpiece of the shrine is a framed photo of a smiling Mayol with his "little brother," Hitoshi Narita.
Narita was one of only five people at Mayol's funeral last Dec. 27 on Monte Cristo Island in Italy, near the spot in the sea where he once broke the world free-diving record with a 105-meter descent.