Paper short abstract:

In Japan taking bath is a significant everyday life activity. In order to grasp the multiple meanings of bathing and its broader reflections on the Japanese society, body should be taken as the existential ground of this practice capable of creating a way of interaction with its environment.

Paper long abstract:

Taking bath (ofuro) in Japan occupies an important place in the everyday life.This experience can take several different forms and it should be noted that throughout this presentation the practice of bathing in hot springs (onsen) and public baths (sentõ) will be particularly focused on and treated as an aspect of the general practice of bathing. Bathing in the Japanese context is not all about cleaning and washing the dirt away from the body. Sitting in a bath tub for a considerable amount of time can argued to be the most significant part of the bathing experience. On the other hand, embodied being whether taking a bath in an onsen or sentõ is creating a way of interaction, practically and technically with the resources of her/his environment. The practice of public bathing continuously reconstructs and updates itself depending on the historical and social contexts which makes it a highly flexible and an enduring practice. It not only provides a space to rest and to "reset the mind" but also makes it possible to socialize in an non hierarchic environment. Bathing with ones own children until a fairly late age is also a common characteristic of the practice. It helps creating bodily interactions among family members providing a different level of intimacy. In order to fully grasp these multiple meanings of bathing and its broader reflections on society, body should be taken as the existential ground of this practice.

Although bathing as an embodied practice and onsen/sentõ as embodied spaces have much to offer in order to understand Japanese life world, it can be argued that it is a rather neglected area of research within Japanese studies. This negligence can be partly due to the uneasiness felt by the researcher towards nakedness and an unwillingness to share the embodied space- perceived within the borders of seclusion- with the researched subjects.