"Bottled milk launched in the 1920s, end of sale as of March."
Recently, the news that the production of milk products in glass bottles will be completely stopped has become quite a hot topic in Japan. This is because in Sento (錢湯, public bath), a glass of bottled milk has been recognized as an essential course after bathing and a symbol of Japanese bath culture as a rite of passage.
Milk companies described it as an inevitable measure due to the burden of workers to collect and transport empty bottles, but there were a series of reactions among the Japanese saying it was regrettable. A citizen said, "It was my pleasure to drink a bottle of bottled milk after taking a bath, but I don't think I will drink it if it comes out as a paper pack. I think the unique sensibility of the disease also disappears," he said.
Japan, where starting and finishing the day with a bath is a daily routine, is so serious about bathing that it is called the "country of bathing." As such, there are many interesting materials related to bathing. The mixed bath in which men and women bathe together is one of them, which is quite unique and unique to the eyes of outsiders such as Korea.
Today, it is said that it is almost disappeared, but if you go to hot springs or local public baths, you can easily find traces of the time when men and women bathed together.
An example is the Bundae (番台), a watch with a unique structure that is located between the men's and women's baths and makes it possible to see both sides, and the image of a young female employee coming in and out of the men's bath as if she were going in and out of the women's bath. This is also the point where foreigners who use public baths in Japan for the first time are quite embarrassed.
In Japan, it was very natural for men and women to bathe together in the nude until the Edo period (1603-1868). Edo's first public bath was created near the Bank of Japan as of 1591, and Edo, which had a population of 1 million and many single men, had a good environment for public baths due to dust generation.
In particular, the Tokugawa shogunate's "Cham-geun shift" allowed daimyo from each province to alternate between Edo and his estate every year, and in the process, the demand for bath facilities for accommodation and relaxation surged. As a result, well over 500 public baths were created in Edo around 1810. Of course, most of them were mixed baths shared by men and women.
In response, Admiral Perry of the United States, who led a black ship and forced Japan to open a port, writes as follows.
"The sight of men and women bathing alone, regardless of their own nature, does not mean that Americans have been positively impressed with their morality. Japanese commoners are undoubtedly obscene citizens, even though they are morally superior to most other Asian countries." -The Perry Expedition
Eme Humbert, a Swiss politician and merchant who first led a delegation to Japan at the same time, described Japan as follows.
"The owner does not refuse guests who come, but puts men and women in the same bathtub. Even if a bathing person walks naked, whether male or female, it is natural as Japanese custom. There is no obstacle to walking naked, saying I will go home with a beautiful skin color that is ripe like a shrimp."-Le Japan ilustre
In other words, at the time, the Japanese didn't mind revealing their naked bodies regardless of gender.
However, if a large number of men and women hang out without clothes, it may be easy to cause a disturbance in the atmosphere, and the shogunate has issued several bans on mixed bathing, starting in 1791. However, it was only a nominal measure because it was not actually well followed.
Japan, a volcanic island, was very rich in hot springs due to its unique climate and climate, and this is commonly discussed as the basis for the development of a culture in which many people bathe together. In addition, it is also believed that the tradition of "施浴" derived from Buddhism lies in the background of the acceptance of mixed male and female bathing without much resistance.
Shamelessness was a Buddhist practice of mercy that gave the sick or poor a chance to bathe, reducing physical pain and building merit by washing away dirt. Since the late 6th century, when Buddhism was introduced from the Korean Peninsula to Japan, there has been a widespread demonstration activity in Japanese temples that provide free baths to the public. In this process, the purpose of cleanliness and relief was prioritized over gender division. It is interpreted that this culture of poetry led to the origin of public baths along with urbanization, and created a climate in which men's and women's mixed baths were easily accepted.
Then, after the opening of the port, Western culture flowed into Japan in earnest, and the Meiji government began a massive crackdown in the 1870s, defining mixed desire as uncivilized and immoral behavior. As a result, by the middle of the 20th century, men's and women's public baths were fully established in urban areas, and mixed baths began to disappear almost.
Currently, Japan does not have a nationwide unified 'no-homelessness law'. However, most local governments have ordinances restricting mixed bathing in public bath facilities. In addition, although it is not legally binding, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare stipulates that "Men and women over the age of 7 do not take a mixed bath."
Mixed bathing hot springs still remain in rural areas such as Gunma, Nagano, and Oita, but they are usually required to wear towels or have separate time zones for female users. Nevertheless, there are a small number of mixed baths where men and women who literally don't know each other enter naked, and they are maintaining their reputation mainly in the sense of tourism resources.
In the early Edo period, Japanese public baths also had female bathkeepers called "湯女." As mixed bathing was common at the time, they naturally pushed customers' backs and washed their bodies and heads regardless of gender.
The bathhouse where they are was very popular, and a so-called star-class woman who is envied for combining beauty and intelligence appeared. There is also a theory that the hairstyle that the woman had is called "Katsuyama Mage" and was popular among ordinary women at the time, and later became the prototype of "Marumage," the hairstyle that married women did.
However, problems arose as the popularity of these women became too high and gradually began to sell sex, not just washing male customers. The shogunate eventually banned them from running public baths in 1657, and sent them all to Yoshiwara Yugak. Later, it was the male bathkeepers called "Sansuke" (助) who came up to replace the vacancies of the women.
Since the middle of the Edo period, when women were banned from activities, the main task of Sansuke has been Nagashi (flow し), which is to push customers' backs in public baths. In 1915, there were about 300 Sansuke in Tokyo alone, and it was said that he had to build nearly 10 years of experience to be recognized as a proper Sansuke.
Sansuke provided Nagashi regardless of gender, and after the gender division was established, they entered the women's bath and provided the service. It is said that the guests in the women's bath, as well as Sansuke himself, did not feel much embarrassed by the fact that Sansuke was present.
In addition to the basic salary, Sansuke received incentives according to the number of times he went out, which was usually the highest income among the employees of the bathhouse. After retirement, he often ran his own bathhouse based on the funds he collected.
Demand for sanske, which was active from the 1950s to the 1960s, began to decline after the supply of boilers and bathtubs in the home began to spread, and gradually declined. Nevertheless, until the 2010s, very few sanske remained in Sitamachi, Tokyo, and according to users, they received a fee of about 400 yen for 15 minutes.
Sansuke A, who retired in 2013 after working until his 70s, told Japanese media at the time, "The ratio of customers was about 5:1 between men and women. There were also young women, but recently a female college student came to receive services to write her graduation thesis," he explained. "Gender didn't bother me at all because I've been washing the bodies of so many guests," he added.
Public baths, which once numbered nearly 20,000 across Japan, are now down to less than 2,000, a sharp drop of nearly 90% compared to their heyday. The main factors are the aging of managers and users, worsening profitability, and the rise of leisure-type alternative bath facilities.
The decline of public baths does not just mean an industrial downturn. This is because their unique cultural elements, including traditional bath managers such as mixed baths and sansuke, and even bottled milk after bathing, are also disappearing one by one along with public baths.
The past and present of Japanese public baths are also symbolic legacies that reflect social changes with the times, including their perception of their naked bodies. We don't know whether it will disappear or survive in another form, but what is clear is that the Japanese public bath is a very useful space for Japanese society, which is different from Korea.
Countless Koreans are visiting Japan every day, with the number of foreigners visiting Japan topping the list for more than three years since 2022. However, there do not seem to be many Koreans who visit public baths that Japanese people visit on a daily basis. Hot spring tourism for tourists is also good, but why don't you go to a public bathhouse where you can feel their daily lives and traditions. It will be an opportunity to improve our understanding of Japan, a close but distant country.
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