During my student days, I once heard a story about how only noblemen, samurai, and the wealthy were able to bathe in a bathhouse in the olden times.
The task of drawing water by hand and creating a large quantity of hot water through the use of firewood was a tremendous amount of labor. Moreover, even if public bathhouses were established, the idea of a bath that was used exclusively by an individual was said to be quite rare due to sanitary reasons.
Could it be possible, I wondered, that there existed a society where bathing was a privilege reserved for the elite few?
In a small, secluded village lay a bathhouse, which was said to have been built during the Edo period. It was an unimpressive structure, made of wood and nestled between two hills. Its exterior was worn, with moss creeping up its walls, and from afar, it looked as if it might crumble at any moment.
