中文导读
如果你看过《千与千寻》，一定会对里面的“汤屋”印象深刻。“汤屋”，其实就是日本的公共澡堂，称作钱汤（sento），最早随佛教传入日本，后来演变为大众浴室。然而，随着家庭浴室的广泛普及以及社会观念的急剧转变，钱汤的生存日益艰难。如今的钱汤已不单只提供沐浴清洁这一功能，诸如美容、按摩、歌舞表演等服务竞相出现。即便如此，其数量仍在急剧下降，钱汤的时代已然不再。
Once-ubiquitous public baths are fighting to survive
STEP from the fraying lobby into the tiled interior of Akebono-Yu, Tokyo’s oldest sento, or public bath-house, and there is an almost churchlike silence, interrupted only by the tinkle of spring water and the odd groan of pleasure from one of the elderly customers sinking into its tubs. A mural depicts the iconic, snow-capped Mount Fuji, 100km and a world away from the grime and din of the city outside.
Once attached to Buddhist shrines, sentos still have a whiff of the spiritual. For centuries they were places where neighbours—men and women—stripped and bathed together. The custom was intensely practical. Until the frenetic modernisation in the run-up to the Olympics in 1964, 40% of homes in Tokyo lacked baths, so millions of people depended on sentos for their nightly soak.
Those days are long gone. Across the city’s skyline, the bath-houses’ distinctive chimney stacks are disappearing. From a peak of perhaps 2,700 sentos, fewer than 600 remain, according to the National Sento Association. Most are run by elderly couples. Luring customers is a struggle. Many have posted signs in English explaining bathing etiquette to the growing number of foreign tourists (eg, shower before you get in the tub). Plush new spas have opened, with beauty salons and massage parlours. A few have become more inventive, laying on concerts and performances. One even offers naked classes in comedy and Go, a Japanese board game, in the hope of luring younger customers.
Teruo Shimada, the owner of Akebono-Yu, says customers will no longer come just to get clean: “You have to give them something extra.” His premises have become something of a social club for pensioners. Some sip beer and sake in the restaurant while watching sumo on a large-screen television. Among the 12 baths inside are a jacuzzi and one that delivers a mild electric shock, said to stimulate sagging muscles and (say men) libido.
Mr Shimada’s ancestors started the business in 1773. A volcanic stream over 1,000m underground, discovered while digging a well, feeds the baths. They have survived fires, war and disaster, including the earthquake that levelled much of the city in 1923, and the firebombing of Tokyo by American planes in 1945. They seemed to have survived the advent of domestic baths, but changing social attitudes are a graver threat. His daughter wants nothing to do with the trade, with its long hours and uncertain rewards, laments Mr Shimada. Once, he could have arranged her marriage and nudged his son-in-law into taking over, but that’s all in the past. After 19 generations in the family, he fears that Akebono-Yu may die with him.
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Aug 10th 2017 | Asia | 443 words
