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Japan, A View from the Bath
A study of the significance of bathing in Japanese mythology and the historical development of communal bathing.
164 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 23, 2020
Borrowed among several other books from a friend for a social-distance bookswap, I had not been expecting that individual to offer up an anthropology book about Japanese bathing customs and traditions. I decided on a whim that yes, I would like to try reading it, and between yesterday and now, I've flown through it. Make no mistake, it's a very dry, textbook sort of read, but I enjoyed the learning experience it offered.
While this absolutely won't be interesting to most people, I'm sure that several individuals on this site in my friends list and/or my list of followers share my love of anime and manga. If anyone among you reading my reviews has ever wondered about the commonality of bath scenes in the materials you've consumed over the years, I would absolutely encourage you to read this book for better insight. (For those who have a love of traveling abroad, like my mother, I strongly suggest you do read this if you ever have wanted to visit Japan.) I spent years since middle school exposed to how regular bath scenes are in media [coming out from Japan,] that I did attribute a sense of culture difference to the practice between Eastern and Western cultures. But the culture of Japan and the significance of bathing to Japanese people—socially, historically, religiously, etc.—runs far deeper than just habitual practice within the bath, and while this was published in the mid-90s, I've little doubt that the work Scott Clark put into this book isn't still relevant in some way to the culture of Japan today and the attitude towards bathing.
A big thank-you to Clark for making this book in order to help better educate others, and a thank-you to my friend Lynn for loaning it to me as part of our social-distance bookswap! I intend to eventually buy a copy for myself to keep and return to in the future.
While this absolutely won't be interesting to most people, I'm sure that several individuals on this site in my friends list and/or my list of followers share my love of anime and manga. If anyone among you reading my reviews has ever wondered about the commonality of bath scenes in the materials you've consumed over the years, I would absolutely encourage you to read this book for better insight. (For those who have a love of traveling abroad, like my mother, I strongly suggest you do read this if you ever have wanted to visit Japan.) I spent years since middle school exposed to how regular bath scenes are in media [coming out from Japan,] that I did attribute a sense of culture difference to the practice between Eastern and Western cultures. But the culture of Japan and the significance of bathing to Japanese people—socially, historically, religiously, etc.—runs far deeper than just habitual practice within the bath, and while this was published in the mid-90s, I've little doubt that the work Scott Clark put into this book isn't still relevant in some way to the culture of Japan today and the attitude towards bathing.
A big thank-you to Clark for making this book in order to help better educate others, and a thank-you to my friend Lynn for loaning it to me as part of our social-distance bookswap! I intend to eventually buy a copy for myself to keep and return to in the future.
April 18, 2023
it's from Uni of Hawai'i so i'm pretty sure this is from some japanese anthropology class, so the book is a bit dry to read but has a lot of interesting parts. however since none of it's gonna "be on the test" i skimmed some sections that didn't interest me as much
i was kinda chuckling since i'm currently "reading" the audiobook for Orientalism by Edward Said and after picking this back up the other day I couldn't help but compare this book to the snippets of 1800's and early 1900's orientalist travel logs that Said includes in his book and though i am no expert i do say we have come a long way in describing and relaying different asian cultures as "the west", lmfao
give it a try if you find this kinda stuff interesting! i think there's a lot of cool stuff in here even if you just have a passing interest
i was kinda chuckling since i'm currently "reading" the audiobook for Orientalism by Edward Said and after picking this back up the other day I couldn't help but compare this book to the snippets of 1800's and early 1900's orientalist travel logs that Said includes in his book and though i am no expert i do say we have come a long way in describing and relaying different asian cultures as "the west", lmfao
give it a try if you find this kinda stuff interesting! i think there's a lot of cool stuff in here even if you just have a passing interest
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews