Stay-at-home bathers threaten Japan’s centuries-old traditional bathhouses
The rise of the stay-at-home bather has left many sento owners pessimistic about their long-term future. “We used to get more than 400 people a day, but now we’re lucky if we get 100,” says Nobutoshi Yoshida, owner of Kimura-yu, a ramshackle bathhouse that has changed little since it was built in 1930.
Rising costs and faltering attempts to improve bathhouses’ staid image threaten to bring to an end the Japanese ritual, stretching back 800 years, of relaxing in a tub of frighteningly hot water in the company of one’s neighbours.
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