Taking the plunge in the Japanese capital’s best watering holes
29 November 2023
It’s not usual to see 20-somethings wearing Moncler going into Tokyo’s public bathhouses – especially not in unprepossessing Sumida, in the east of the city. Typically found in old neighbourhoods, sentos are associated with the elderly, not millennial hipsters. However, it is the young that third-generation sento owner Takuya Shinbo had in mind when he took over Koganeyu and turned it into a bath for a new age.
Japan’s commitment to bathing – part ritual, part wellness – is deeply rooted, and there is nowhere better than a sento to discover the importance of bathing to everyday life. With their straightforward focus on washing and bathing (in tubs of varying temperatures, with bubbles or massage jets, plus a teeny sauna, if you’re lucky), sentos were essential to post-war households lacking private baths (of which there are still many), and have always been places to socialize and maintain wellness.
It was this emphasis on wellbeing and connection that Shinbo wanted to share – with young Tokyoites who had not grown up using public bathhouses, and travelers interested in Japan’s bathing culture. He persuaded local creative director and textile designer Hiroko Takahashi, architect Jo Nagasaka, and manga artist Yoriko Hoshi to help him. “These are not normally the kind of people found working on sento,” he says. “But they love them and share my vision to keep this culture alive.”
The result was a dramatically different, industrial-chic bathhouse that retained the original baths but added social spaces. The polished concrete entrance was widened to “enable first-timers to see what’s going on inside”. That is, music playing from DJ decks and visitors sitting at high tables drinking. Staff in branded happi coats hand out craft beers – and towels – from the bandai (bar area). Beyond are the changing rooms and baths, plus a large sauna so popular that four-hour waits at the weekend are normal. That, plus a café and dorm accommodation, makes the sento economically viable.
The number of sento in Tokyo has declined from around 3,000 in the 1960s to about 500 now, as the city’s demographic and way of life have changed and owners pass on or sell up. The low, capped entry fee and high maintenance and energy costs make them notoriously expensive to run, and the land they are built on can be worth millions of yen to developers. “Sento owners have to be really committed to keep them going,” says urban activist Sam Holden, who is based in northern Tokyo. “However, sento are tied into the everyday rhythms of local life. People use them, then stop at the grocery stand or liquor store. They are keystones of the neighborhood: remove them and everything else falls away.”
Holden and friends established Sento & Neighborhood to support local sento, starting with Inariyu in Takinogawa, a landmark on the historic Nakasendo Road. Built in 1930, it is a rare example of early-20th-century, temple-like sento architecture, with an immaculate interior featuring a Mount Fuji mural by one of Japan’s last sento artists. However, with visitor numbers dwindling, Inari-yu faced an insecure future. Sento & Neighborhood helped it get registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property and secured a grant to renovate an adjacent nagaya (Edo-era longhouse) into a café and social space that could boost the sento’s revenues.
Ninety-year-old Kosugi-yu in Koenji, one of Tokyo’s busiest sento, welcomes more than 900 daily visitors at weekends. On a crisp Saturday morning, I arrive to meet Miho Rayson and her toddler, Frederick, waving off a group of runners outside. “They do their exercise, then they come to relax,” she beams. “It’s part of life here.”
Often found cleaning or folding towels, employee Rayson describes herself as Kosugiyu’s version of Kamaji, the many-armed, multitasking boiler creature in Studio Ghibli’s bathhouse anime Spirited Away. She has recently started hosting walking tours of Koenji on behalf of Sento Gurashi, a community organization working to safeguard Kosugi-yu’s future. “By bathing naked in the same tub as a stranger, you can feel accepted by society as you are,” she says. Sento are indeed a great leveller. Visitors don’t need any knowledge or language skills to use one. They are open to all and, unlike at most onsen, tattoos are permitted. You can even turn up empty-handed: body wash is included in the maximum ¥520 (about £3) entry fee, and towels can be rented for a little more.
And so I find myself standing naked in Kosugi-yu’s women’s changing room clutching a small rental towel over my modesty. I slip inside the white-tiled bathroom, as steam swirls around the peak of the Mount Fuji mural, while, beneath it, women of all ages sit together, soaking in restorative tubs. The room echoes with the sound of water sluicing over naked bodies being scrubbed clean. I take a pail and stool to do the same. Reassuringly little attention is paid to anyone’s nudity.
Then, a micro-towel twisted around my head, I approach the nearest tub, where the temperature gauge hovers around 40 degrees. “Take your time,” an older lady smiles, as I slip in beside her, submerging myself in the intense heat. The water is milky with tiny bubbles and my skin tingles. On my other side, in the 42-degree tub, women squeeze in to try today’s “special bath”, with added sake lees (“It’s good for your skin”).
All exposure anxiety has dissipated, allowing me to enjoy the simple pleasure of the hot bath. It’s a privilege to immerse myself, literally, into ordinary life in this extraordinary megacity, and watch the silent communion of strangers, who bow respectfully and give up places for one another in the tub. I consider the conversation I had earlier in the week with Kentaro Imai, the architect behind the renovation of 19 Tokyo bathhouses. “In Tokyo, where we have the high stresses of city life, sento are the best place to relax,” he told me, resolutely. “They are the most cost-effective facilities for healing in Japan.”
He’s right: taking a bath in a Tokyo sento might be the best £3 you will ever spend.
The best bathing spots in Tokyo
Fancy taking a dip? These are our favorite places across the frenetic city to take to the water.
Inari-Yu, Takinogawa
This architecturally rare sento, with three baths on each side and a Mount Fuji mural by septuagenarian artist Morio Nakajima, is registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property and appeared in the hit Japanese film Thermae Romae. Sento & Neighborhood’s café-lounge in the adjacent nagaya longhouse is the place for pre- or post-bath relaxation.
Address: 6 Chome-27-14 Takinogawa, Kita City, Tokyo 114-0023, Japan
Website: sento-to-machi.org
Kosugiyu, Koenji
This 1930s bathhouse in arty Koenji is also officially a National Tangible Cultural Property. It is spacious and bright, with a sweeping Mount Fuji mural and four baths on each side. Kosugi-yu Tonari, in the new architectural building next door, is a café and co-working space run by community supporter organization Sento Gurashi.
Address: Kosugiyu, 3 Chome-32-17 Koenjikita, Suginami City, Tokyo 166-0002, Japan
Website: kosugiyu.co.jp
Koganeyu, Sumida
Reopened in 2020 after a transformation by architect Jo Nagasaka, this destination sento has a bar, DJ decks, a café and dorm accommodation alongside the baths – but its unique selling point is the large sauna and outdoor cooling-off pool. Sauna reservations are essential.
Address: Koganeyu, 4 Chome-14-6 Taihei, Sumida City, Tokyo 130-0012, Japan
Website: koganeyu.com
Goshikiyu, Mejiro
An original painted-tile mural provides the backdrop to this gorgeous sento that reopened in September 2022 after a major redesign by architect Kentaro Imai, in his signature nostalgic-contemporary style. It features coloured glass panels above three baths and advertising posters saved from the original bathhouse.
Website: goshikiyu.jpn.com
Hanare, Yanaka
This hotel set in two old wooden buildings inhabits a traditional temple neighbourhood and offers guests free tickets to its three local sento, including Fukunoyu, created by architect Kentaro Imai. English-speaking guides offer a walking tour that includes two repurposed former sento: art gallery SCAI The Bathhouse and Miyano-yu, which has a café and shop selling body brushes.
Address: 3 Chome-10-25 Yanaka, Taito City, Tokyo 110-0001, Japan
Website: hanare.hagiso.jp
