it's not really exclusively japan that had that issue. baths were a luxury no matter where you were in the world before more modern innovations of transporting water became invented. nothing to do with it being a legal issue either. it was all just very expensive to have a bath since filling it up with water was a job that required multiple people gathering the water and just as many heating it up for even more comfort. naturally carpenters overcharged to even build baths as well since only the rich could actually afford to have it filled.Historical Japan sure was a harsh place if baths had been made only a privilege for the feudal lords and their kin. It seems kind of unlikely any author would suddenly invent such a bizarre thing for their story out of nowhere. Maybe the Japanese love baths so much today because it was illegal for their predecessors.
That's like saying a car is something only the rich can afford today. Besides, Luna is the star assassin of the dark guild, getting paid good gold. Yet she hadn't ever had a bath, only hearing stories about it. So, if gold can't buy you a bath, it means there aren't public baths because the nobles have made them illegal. Such a thing would make sense in a place suffering from chronic drought, but not otherwise. Thus, I assumed the author got such an outlandish idea from real Japanese history. In the West, baths have existed since forever, public and private. It's not like people would have ever loved to be all dirty and nasty on purpose. Sure, lots of poor people needed to settle for far less, like a bucket of cold water, or even going stinky for days and weeks, but those who had coin weren't forced to.it's not really exclusively japan that had that issue. baths were a luxury no matter where you were in the world before more modern innovations of transporting water became invented. nothing to do with it being a legal issue either. it was all just very expensive to have a bath since filling it up with water was a job that required multiple people gathering the water and just as many heating it up for even more comfort. naturally carpenters overcharged to even build baths as well since only the rich could actually afford to have it filled.
public baths weren't widespread anywhere outside the greek and roman empires until aqueducts were invented. who would build a public bath in a world where such plumbing doesn't even exists aside from eccentrics? remember filling up a bath would take tens to hundreds of people depending on the size constantly moving water from a well or lake until the bath is full and then they would have to drain it and repeat the process all over again. there are no benefits to doing this for anyone since it's not cost efficient at all. even if she is fairly well off, baths in such a time period was a benefit that only the richest could afford to build and fill up with water. japan has always had a culture of bathing and no one was bared from it.That's like saying a car is something only the rich can afford today. Besides, Luna is the star assassin of the dark guild, getting paid good gold. Yet she hadn't ever had a bath, only hearing stories about it. So, if gold can't buy you a bath, it means there aren't public baths because the nobles have made them illegal. Such a thing would make sense in a place suffering from chronic drought, but not otherwise. Thus, I assumed the author got such an outlandish idea from real Japanese history. In the West, baths have existed since forever, public and private. It's not like people would have ever loved to be all dirty and nasty on purpose. Sure, lots of poor people needed to settle for far less, like a bucket of cold water, or even going stinky for days and weeks, but those who had coin weren't forced to.
Ooh, I feel like I'm now catching up on my own misunderstanding. So, the chapter was only considering a huge pool of warm water a bath, like you'd find in Japanese onsen. Then it certainly makes sense. I just thought a bath is a bath, that is, any activity of washing yourself in an artificial setting (not just jumping into a lake in this context). Since I live in a country where the bathing type called a sauna has been extremely ubiquitous from the stone age, with no interruptions, I just couldn't understand this chapter's point.public baths weren't widespread anywhere outside the greek and roman empires until aqueducts were invented. who would build a public bath in a world where such plumbing doesn't even exists aside from eccentrics? remember filling up a bath would take tens to hundreds of people depending on the size constantly moving water from a well or lake until the bath is full and then they would have to drain it and repeat the process all over again. there are no benefits to doing this for anyone since it's not cost efficient at all. even if she is fairly well off, baths in such a time period was a benefit that only the richest could afford to build and fill up with water. japan has always had a culture of bathing and no one was bared from it.
Cultural differences are indeed a hard concept to overcome when reading stories from parts places of the world. I understand completely why you were confused.Ooh, I feel like I'm now catching up on my own misunderstanding. So, the chapter was only considering a huge pool of warm water a bath, like you'd find in Japanese onsen. Then it certainly makes sense. I just thought a bath is a bath, that is, any activity of washing yourself in an artificial setting (not just jumping into a lake in this context). Since I live in a country where the bathing type called a sauna has been extremely ubiquitous from the stone age, with no interruptions, I just couldn't understand this chapter's point.
Bath houses were widespread in Medieval Europe. They weren't big, open pools like the Roman or Japanese baths, but smaller tubs and basins, similar to modern baths many homes have. Not so much where I live (Scandinavia), due to the numerous rivers and lakes.public baths weren't widespread anywhere outside the greek and roman empires until aqueducts were invented.
I find our saunas to be closer to the typical Japanese hot bath/onsen than what you normally consider bathing in the Western world. It's less of cleaning and more for relaxation.Since I live in a country where the bathing type called a sauna has been extremely ubiquitous from the stone age, with no interruptions, I just couldn't understand this chapter's point.
I guess when you're canonically so good looking you literally stop traffic, the opposite sex tends to want to quickly drop any formality barriers for some reason... Wonder why that is...?4th girl in a row to tell him to "drop the honorifics"
There's a misconception about how often Europeans bathed mostly because the times hygiene superstitions get brought up is when talking about when plagues were all over the place. Bathhouses naturally became less popular during times where you could straight up die from it and Japan especially gets suckered in by the misleading info. Europeans were absolutely filthy but our general education and layman's knowledge concerning their cleanliness is spotty at best because we take snapshots of the worst cases/times.Historical Japan sure was a harsh place if baths had been made only a privilege for the feudal lords and their kin. It seems kind of unlikely any author would suddenly invent such a bizarre thing for their story out of nowhere. Maybe the Japanese love baths so much today because it was illegal for their predecessors.