The Last Sansuke ペーパースカイが見つめる”Japan”
東京・日暮里にある斎藤湯。ここには、お客の背中を流す「三助」と呼ばれる仕事をする、最後の人物がいる。橘秀雪さん、現在72才。15才で富山から上京し、当時大盛況だった銭湯業界に働き口をみつけた。そして50年間、銭湯の掃除からボイラー管理、番頭など様々な仕事をこなしてきた。「僕たちは400円を支払い、”流し”（背中流し）と書かれた木の札だけを持って裸で入浴することにした。プラスチック製の椅子に座り，身体を洗い終わったころに、橘が白いランニングシャツと黒い半ズボンの三助姿で現れ …»
Sacred Architecture: The Myojin Sento
The final of our three-part series on The Japanese Sento (Parts 1 & 2)
Tokyo has cleverly disguised it’s Sento as lavish temples and the only evidence of their true identity, and the naked bathing inside, comes from the steam rising above the tiled rooftops and the chrome smokestack. However, careful eyes can pick them out by the “hafu,” a curved wooden shape hanging over the entrance. “It symbolizes an entrance to paradise,” says Sento writer Shinobu Machida. There are only three other places where you can see such a shape: …»
Painting the Holy Mountain: Kiyoto Maruyama
The second of our three-part series on The Japanese Sento (Parts 1 & 3)
Kiyoto Maruyama is one of two remaining “Penki-eshi” (Sento painters) in Tokyo. Today he is painting the back wall of Fujino-yu, but as we arrive he climbs down from the scaffolding, walks through the coffee cans and paint tins to sit down in front of us. His track pants and slip on canvas shoes are coated in a dense patina of blue and white paint and behind his seated silhouette, today’s wet, half-finished portrait of Mt. Fuji is drying in the afternoon sunlight. “Sometimes they request that I paint in the middle, for both baths,” Moriyama gestures to the wall space above the partition between male and female baths …»
磨き込まれた共同浴場 道後温泉本館
ヨーロッパを旅していると、歴史的な建造物が今なお現役で利用されていて驚くことがある。教会や大聖堂はもちろん、劇場、学校、パブなど、数百年前を経た建物がそのままに、当たり前のように使われている。そうした建物は町の人々の誇りであり、使い続けることでまた、過去から現在、未来へと人々の暮らしを繋げていく役割をも担っている。日本の文化財と呼ばれる建造物は、その多くが木造建築であるため、耐震や安全面において保存していくのが難しいとされるており、それゆえかつて学校や公会堂、銭湯など、生活の場として利用さ …»
Washing Ritual: The Last Sansuke
The first of our three-part series on The Japanese Sento (Parts 2 & 3)
With wrinkled and nimble hands Shusetsu Tachibana washes the back of 77 year old Sugiwara-san. As the oldest customer at Saito-yu, Sugiwara-san is only a few years younger than the baths themselves. This washing ritual is very old and well known; Tachibana-san has done it tens of thousands of times. His hands move quickly between multiple points on the back, arms and head. Simultaneously pushing, pulling, pinching. He sways and jerks, moving his body repetitively as he …»
