Japanese Bath Culture (2) ~ Sento

Sento: Public Bath House for Everyday Use

For people in the city who live in tiny apartments without a private bath, we have public bath houses called Sento. Sento is made of two kanji characters, "Sen 銭" meaning fee and "To 湯 (tou) meaning hot water. This is a basic type of bathing facility open to the public. Sento bath houses are generally for city residents for everyday use, and are run by the municipal government.

Edo, a capital city of the Edo period (1603~1868), what is presently central Tokyo, had a series of big fires which were often caused by heating of bath water. It is said that because
of this the government encouraged people in Tokyo not to have a home bath but instead go to a city-authorized public bath house. In fact, fuel was not cheap in the city so a private bath was unaffordable for many people anyway. For a long time, most people in the big cities of Japan used public bath houses. The number of Sento has been decreasing in recent years, though, as private bathrooms become more common.

Note: The photo above shows the exterior of Sento, Hisago-yu, in Asakusa. Actually the son of the owner was my classmate from kindergarten to 6th grade, and my long time heartthrob of those days. This Sento was demolished and no longer exists, though. :'(

When I was a child, none of my friends had a room at home for bathing since we grew up in the former Edo part of Tokyo, or we were all poor...both are true. I went to a public bath with family, friends, or neighbors and also met them inside the bath house. A bath house definitely is all about community. Kids play with other kids, men talk about last night baseball game, and women talk about anything and everything.

There is a comedy book called Ukiyoburo (浮世風呂) which was written in around 1810. It is basically about this community culture going on in the public bath in Tokyo 200 years ago.

Actually, when we were kids, the public bath was a place for getting together with others. We were scolded or preached to by old people, an acquaintance or a stranger, almost every time for all sorts of reasons.

Here's a video explaining manners when Sento bathing--more humorous than informational. Hope you get his English. My first thought would be to scold him for not shutting the sliding door completely! They missed that! I can tell you, this is one of the most common things at a place like this. The kids are always being scolded by adults!

Manners at a Sento (comical video)

You also can see Sento in the following museums:

Edo Tokyo Tatemonoen in Koganei City, Tokyo:

The website has English pages but not much information. This place has historical buildings in a park. One of them is Kodakara-yu, which was relocated from Adachi-ku, Tokyo. This web page shows good photos but the text is all in Japanese.

Shitamachi Museum in Ueno, Tokyo:

This place only displays the front part, not the bath area, in a small museum of old Tokyo. This video shows what's in the museum.

Osaka Ima-Mukashikan in Osaka (Japanese only):

This exhibits Osaka in the Edo era and has the bathhouse display. This video shows the inside of the museum.