Bath - Bath

The origin of the word "furo" is said to be derived from muro (room), meaning cave (iwaya) or rock chamber. Stone baths (or rock baths) gradually developed along the Seto Inland Sea coast and spread to the surrounding areas. They are a type of hot air bath or steam bath that uses rock caves on the beach. Some are not natural caves, but are hemispherical, made of stones solidified with soil. In these holes, fresh and dead branches of miscellaneous trees are burned for a while, which heats up the floor stones and surrounding walls, and seaweed is brought in. When the temperature is suitable, the ashes are scraped out or smoothed out, a mat soaked in salt water is laid down, and the person lies down on top of it to block the entrance. When they have warmed up, they go outside to rest, then go back into the hole, repeating this process several times. By burning the branches of miscellaneous trees, the essential oils and other ingredients contained in the plants are trapped in the holes, and by bringing in seaweed, the steam contains salt and iodine, so this must have been of great health and therapeutic value to people in the past, and is an amazing example of wisdom acquired from nature. From these factors, it is easy to understand why there are so many stone bath ruins along the Seto Inland Sea coast and islands, which are said to have been popularized by Kobo Daishi.

Unlike the stone baths found along the coast, there is another type of bath inland known as a kama bath. A typical example is the kama bath in Yase, Kyoto Prefecture, which dates back to ancient times. Its structure is roughly walled and round, measuring about 2 meters in diameter and height, and 60 centimeters thick. At the bottom of the wall is a roughly 60-centimeter square hole, which serves as both an entrance and a fireplace. The interior floor is paved with stones and is flush with the dirt floor outside. Fresh branches from the mountains and fields are burned in the hearth, and after the ashes have been raked out, salt bags or straw mats soaked in salt water are laid on it. After the steam rising from the salt bags has expelled the smoke from inside the hearth through the fireplace, the person enters the hearth, closes the entrance, lies down on a wooden pillow, and then lies down. The best time for moist heat is said to be two to three hours after the fire has finished, and once the temperature inside the hearth has dropped, the ceiling is wiped with fresh branches brought in beforehand, causing the temperature to rise again. After 20 to 30 minutes of sweating, people go outside and wash off the sweat in the adjacent "Goemon bath." This is the basic structure and heating method, but there were various types of hearth baths and stone baths in different places, depending on the materials used (rough walls and masonry), the fuel (fresh branches and dead branches), and the ingenuity of the fuel used. In Edo, there was also a salt bath modeled after the Yase hearth bath, which attracted unusual visitors.

Since ancient times, Japanese people have had the custom of purifying their bodies and minds by bathing when worshiping or praying to gods. This custom of misogi became one of the ritual events such as the Oyudonogi ceremony at the Imperial Court. With the introduction of Buddhism, hot bath facilities were built in temples for the purpose of bathing Buddha and for the washing of monks. Later, many of the common people who visited temples followed the example of the monks and nuns and wanted to take a hot bath for purification and health, so the great baths were built to serve the purpose of saving all living beings. The story of Empress Komyo's bathing service at the bath hall of Hokkeji Temple in Nara is particularly famous. It is likely that these baths made the common people aware of the refreshing effect that bathing has on the body and mind, and gradually people began to adopt the bathing habit. The baths in the ondo halls of the various large temples were gradually imitated and adopted by the residences and villas of upper-class nobles and military commanders, and came to be used for leisure as well as health and hygiene. A representative example that remains today is the Oukakudai of Hiunkaku, which was moved to Nishi Honganji Temple in Kyoto. Hiunkaku is said to have been built as the residence of Toyotomi Hideyoshi within Jurakudai. The bath area inside is wooden-floored, with a drainage ditch running down almost the center, and a gabled steam bath in the southwest corner of the bath, with sliding doors about 45 centimeters above the floor for access. The interior is floored with bamboo lattice, and steam rises from a kettle underneath, making it a steam bath. Outside the bath area there is a rice porridge and a water tank. This is a method of bathing in which you warm your body, sweat, and lift the dirt off your body, then wash it away with hot or cold water. There is also a method of bathing in which you create a bathtub, pour hot water into it, and then immerse your body in the bathtub. There are two types of baths: steam baths and washing baths, but over time the two became confused and both came to be called bathhouses or furoya.

As the houses of common people became crowded together and cities developed, town baths began to appear. It is not clear when these commercial town baths first appeared, but they are thought to have already existed between the Heian and Kamakura periods. The first public bath in Edo is said to have been built by Ise Yoichi on the banks of Zenigame Bridge in 1591 (Tensho 19), the year after Tokugawa Ieyasu entered the city. Under the feudal domain system, the number of vassals of the feudal lords who made alternate attendance trips to Edo and townspeople engaged in commerce and industry increased, and bathhouses for women were established to serve them, and the number gradually increased. During the day, bathhouse women were employed to scrub the bathers' dirt, comb their hair, and serve them tea. At night, a folding screen was set up in the waiting area, creating a tatami-mat-style room where they entertained customers with alcohol and sex. However, the shogunate abolished the women's baths due to public morals issues, so the bathhouses refrained from doing business and switched to only providing baths to men. At the time, it was generally unthinkable for anyone except for the wealthy to have their own bathing facilities, so lower-ranking samurai and commoners used public baths. Public baths offered a variety of services and prospered, continuing into the Meiji period.

[Fumio Inagaki]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

「ふろ」の語源は室(むろ)から転じたものといわれ、窟(いわや)または岩室の意味である。石風呂(いわぶろ)（または岩風呂）というものが、瀬戸内海沿岸あたりからしだいに発達して周辺に広がっていった。海浜の岩窟(がんくつ)などを利用した熱気浴、蒸し風呂の類(たぐい)である。また自然の岩穴でなく、石を土などで築き固めた半球形のものもある。これらの穴の中で、雑木の生枝、枯れ枝などをしばらく焚(た)くと、床石や周辺の壁が熱せられ、そこに海藻などを持ち込み、適当な温度になったところで中の灰をかき出すか、または灰をならして、塩水に浸した莚(むしろ)を敷き、その上に横臥(おうが)して入口をふさぐ。暖まると外に出て休養し、また穴の中に入るということを何回か繰り返す。雑木の枝などを燃やすことによって、植物に含まれる精油その他種々の成分が穴の中にこもり、また海藻を持ち込むことは、水蒸気の中に塩分とかヨード分が含まれることになるので、往古の人にとって保健療治の効果は大なるものがあったに違いなく、自然に獲得した知恵としては驚嘆に値する。瀬戸内海沿岸および島などに弘法大師(こうぼうだいし)の広めたと伝える石風呂遺跡の多い理由も、これらのことから理解しやすい。

　沿岸各地にみられる石風呂に対し、内陸には釜(かま)風呂とよぶものがある。代表的なものは京都府八瀬(やせ)の竈(かま)風呂で、この始源はきわめて古い。その構造は、内側の直径、高さともに約2メートル、厚さ約60センチメートルの荒壁造りのまんじゅう形で、壁の下方に約60センチメートル平方の穴をあけ、これが出入口であり、焚口(たきぐち)でもある。内部の床には石を敷き、外の土間と同一平面にある。山野の生枝を竈内で燃やし、灰をかき出してから塩俵(しおだわら)または塩水でぬらした荒莚を敷く。塩俵からあがった水蒸気が竈内の煙を焚口から追い出すのを待って竈内に入り、入口を閉じ木枕(きまくら)をして横臥する。焚き終わってから2～3時間後が湿熱のいちばんよいころとされ、竈内の温度が下がったと思えば、あらかじめ持ち込んだ生枝で天井を払うようにすると、温度はふたたび上がる。20～30分ほどで発汗すると外に出て、隣接の「五右衛門(ごえもん)風呂」に入り汗を流す。基本的にはこのような構造、加熱方法であるが、材質として荒壁と石積みの違い、燃料として生枝と枯れ枝の違い、燃料の焚き方のくふうの差などで、所により種々の竈風呂、石風呂があった。江戸にもこの八瀬の竈風呂を模した塩風呂というものがあり、奇を好む遊客を集めた。

　古来、日本人が神を礼拝、祈願する場合には、沐浴(もくよく)して心身を清める風習がある。この禊(みそぎ)の慣習は、宮中などにおける御湯殿(おゆどの)の儀というような儀礼的な行事の一つとなった。また仏教の伝来とともに、浴仏の行事、衆僧の洗浴などの目的で寺院に温浴の設備がつくられた。その後、寺院参詣(さんけい)の大衆も僧尼に倣い、潔斎とか保健のため温浴の希望の者も多く、衆生済度(しゅじょうさいど)の目的にもかなうため大衆専用の温浴設備を設けたのが大湯屋である。光明(こうみょう)皇后の奈良・法華寺浴堂における施浴の所伝は、ことに有名である。こういう施浴が、入浴というものの心身に与える爽快(そうかい)さを衆人に知らしめて、しだいに入浴習慣を身につけていったものであろう。諸大寺の温堂の風呂は、しだいに上流公家(くげ)、武将らの住居、別荘などに模倣し取り入れられ、保健衛生面のほかに遊楽的なものとなっていった。今日に残る代表例として、京都・西本願寺に移築された飛雲閣の黄鶴台(おうかくだい)がある。飛雲閣は、聚楽第(じゅらくだい)のなかに豊臣(とよとみ)秀吉の邸(やしき)としてつくられたものという。中の浴場は板敷きで、ほぼ中央に流し溝があり、浴場の西南隅に破風(はふ)造りの蒸気浴室があって、床から約45センチメートルの高さの所に引違い戸があり出入りできる。内部は簀子(すのこ)板敷きで、その下の釜から水蒸気があがる蒸し風呂である。浴室の外に陸湯(おかゆ)と水槽がある。身体を暖め発汗して垢(あか)を浮かせ、湯や水を浴びて洗い流す方式である。このほかに湯槽をつくって湯を移し入れ、湯槽の中に身体を浸すという入浴方式がある。蒸し風呂と洗い湯の両種であるが、しだいに両者は混同されて、ともに湯屋、風呂屋とよばれるようになった。

　庶民の家屋が密集し都市も発展してくると、町湯というものができてくる。この営業用の町湯がいつごろから出現したかはつまびらかではない。しかし平安時代から鎌倉時代にかけてはすでにあったものと思われる。江戸の銭湯の初めは、徳川家康入府の翌年、1591年（天正19）銭瓶(ぜにがめ)橋のほとりに伊勢(いせ)与市が建てたものという。幕藩体制のもとで、江戸には参勤交代の諸大名の家臣、商工業に従事する町人たちが増加し、それを相手とする湯女(ゆな)風呂などができて、だんだん増加していった。湯女を置いて、昼間は浴客の垢を掻(か)き、髪をすき、湯茶の接待をした。また夜になると上がり場に屏風(びょうぶ)をしつらえて座敷構えにつくり、酒色の相手をした。しかし幕府は風紀上の問題から湯女風呂をとりつぶしたので、湯屋は自粛して男の三助にかえた。当時は一般に、自家に入浴設備をもつことは特別な富家でもなければ考えられず、下級武士や庶民は銭湯を利用した。銭湯もいろいろサービスしたので繁盛し、明治に至ったのである。

［稲垣史生］

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