Name: 日本的公共浴池說明 (Japanese Public Bathing Explained)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T08:39:07.000Z
Duration: 11 min 41 s
Description: 【看影片學英語】數萬部 YouTube 影片，搭配英漢字典即點即查，輕鬆掌握單字發音與用法，長久累積看電影不必再看字幕。

I remember the first time I heard about Japanese onsen

Okay, onsen means hot spring and people bathing in one look like this.

But there's also sento which is a public bathing facility people bathing in one look like this

Yeah, unless you know where the water is coming from they can look exactly the same

the main difference is that onsen use natural spring water whereas cento use heated tap water

Osaka sometimes does it different and onsen can be cento, so read the fine print if you really want to know more

But back to my story about how I first heard about onsen.

In my youth when I used to work summers as a painter

My coworker told me about his trip to Japan with his Japanese girlfriend

I was quite surprised to hear they visited a mixed bathing facility. Where yes they were both naked

I know certain Europeans, just love to flaunt their nudity

But as a Canadian, this felt all sorts of wrong, just so you don't get the wrong idea

Nowadays most Japanese public bathing is done with the same gender

But still I thought how could bathing naked with a bunch of other dudes be relaxing?

Well, let me tell you, have you ever read Shogun?

if you have or if you've seen the TV miniseries you totally know

Like hell! A bath will make you foul sick

You see, back in the time period this is taking place.

The 1600s, the English used to think bathing might foul your health with bad air

This theory of bad air was called miasma.

And was prevalent during the times of cholera and dundundun...

if it were me I believed in the bad air theory too after learning that half my ancestors died during the plague

But having been mostly closed off to the world at this time.

The average Japanese villager would have thought this theory plain crazy

Sometimes people don't know what's best for them and need to be shown the way despite their kicking and screaming,

We're talking about over a thousand years

that historians don't have conclusive reasons for how it got started

A simple explanation can be that since Japan is a volcanic island and is chock full of natural Hot Springs

Was bound to happen that people would want to get naked and jump in

Most history texts I've read posit the start of onsen culture in Japan

was associated with Buddhist temples and religious bathings

Bathing at a temple was first a thing only for priests

But then it opened up to the sick who could benefit from the healing powers of the natural springs

Then the rich heard about this and thought:

Hey, I'm going to build one just for me because why share?

by the 1600s also known as the beginning of the edo period

Two types of commercial bathing were popular in Japan.

which is formally called Edo, hence the name of the era.

there were bath houses with pools of water called Yuya

Bathing was more about the steam and called mushi Bulo,

In 1869, at the start of the Meiji period.

Laws were put in place to separate bathing by gender

Apparently, the American commander Commodore Perry thought that doing so wasn't moral,

and then the Japanese government was like...

then some japanese proprietors says, you want me to build a whole new bath house just to separate the people?

How about I put this small board here to divide it?

That didn't all stop the peeping Tanaka's

Other operators came up with a simple idea of

only allowing in certain genders at spacific times of the day

while others decided to choose sides and specialize in a single gender

This must be a huge shock for those who know the propensity of the Japanese to follow rules

But to tell the truth, varying laws have attempted to curtail kon-yoku, which is mixed bathing

Since way before the Meiji period and all the way up until after World War two

The latest laws on the books prohibit mixed gender bathing.

Though, there's an exception for young kids

Mixed gender bathing is still allowed today

as places that allowed it before the laws were put into place or grandfathered in

By the time we hit the 1970s we reach peak bathhouses

Population was booming and the economy as well

But as Japan recovered and became an economic superpower

bathtubs became the standard in new homes and bath houses weren't as needed on a regular basis

So now that there's virtually no immediate need to bathe outside the home.

Why is communal bathing still a very popular activity in Japan?

If you've ever seen japanese dramas, animes or TV shows, you've probably witnessed a group bathing scene

Bathing to relax is probably the easiest way to explain why the Japanese love going to public baths

unlike previous iterations of bath houses

Modern ones have become increasingly like spas

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日本的公共浴池說明 (Japanese Public Bathing Explained)

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