The Japanese Bath (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Yoshiko Yamamoto (Author) "We have lived our lives outside of Japan for more than a decade now..." (more)
Key Phrases: washing area, bathing area, Port Orford, San Francisco

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In the West, a bath is a place one goes to cleanse the body. In Japan, one goes there to cleanse the soul. Bathing in Japan is about much more than cleanliness: it is about family and community. It is about being alone and contemplative, time to watch the moon rise above the garden.

Along with sixty full-color illustrations of the light and airy baths themselves, The Japanese Bath, delves into the aesthetic of bathing Japanese style and the innate beauty of the steps surrounding the process. The authors explain how to create a Japanese bath in your own home. A Zen meditation, the Japanese bath, indeed, cleanses the soul, and one emerges refreshed, renewed, and serene.

From the Inside Flap

In the West, a bath is a place one goes to cleanse the body. In Japan, one goes there to cleanse the soul. Bathing in Japan is about much mor than cleanliness, though cleanliness is certainly important. It is about family and community--the washing of each other's backs before bathing. It is also about being alone and contemplative, time to watch the moon rise above the garden.

The idea of taking time and care with one's bath in Japan is as important as taking time and care with the cooking and serving of a meal. There is also a ritual to taking a Japanese bath, a prescribed order of rinsing, washing, and soaking that is passed down from one generation to the next.

The Japanese Bath delves into the aesthetic of bathing Japanese style--the innate beauty of the steps surrounding the process along with sixty full-color illustrations of the light and airy baths themselves. A Zen meditation, the Japanese bath cleanses the soul, and one emerges refreshed, renewed, and serene.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Gibbs Smith; Fourth Printing edition (April 24, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158685027X
• ISBN-13: 978-1586850272
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 7.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #259,881 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #38 in

  Books > Home & Garden > Home Design > Remodeling & Renovation > Bathrooms

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 4 for the photojournalism and philosophy, 3 for ideas, February 24, 2003

By	Atheen M. Wilson "Atheen" (Mpls, MN United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I'm confronted with a major redecoration of my bathroom (status post leaking tub, water damaged floor, and Great Dane deconstruction project!), so I've been casting about for ideas. Since I've always admired the minimalist beauty of Japanese art and architecture and the oriental appreciation of the natural as art, when I found The Japanese Bath by Bruce Smith and Yoshiko Yamamoto I decided to check it out for ideas. What I was looking for was practical information, however, and this book is more a philosophy of The Bath as multi level sensual experience. As the authors write, "Entering a bath in Japan is to enter another world. It is a place where one not only cleans the body but also cleanses the mind (p. 13)".

The photos are lovely (my favorites are the "created scenery" on pp. 30, 33, and 47), and one can hardly but envy those wealthy enough to have the space, let alone the wherewithal, to have a separate building devoted to the "zen" of bathing. Unfortunately I live in a town house, and I rather doubt that the association would appreciate my extending my bathroom into the commons-I could be wrong, but I sincerely doubt it; they're not terribly open minded! I suspect I am not alone in my lack of space for major remodeling.

Taking the above quote from page 13 as a starting point, what I did gain from the book was a realization that in our fast paced Western lives we can still find moments of relaxation and relief from stress by creating small environments in our homes conducive to the Eastern concept of "centering." It needn't be hours long and one needn't even be consciously aware of the effect to derive a benefit from the experience. While The Japanese Bath provided some information useful to the average person for creating a bathing room (it does discuss tubs and wood for making them), there was little of the nitty gritty of how to apply the philosophy to the smaller homes most of us live in these days.

The information one gleans from The Japanese Bath has to be more indirect. The notes on the Japanese "palette," for instance, suggest the use of darker, less vivid colors to create a quieter, more restful room. Certainly this idea above all gave me a starting point that finally helped me pull some of my other ideas more smoothly into place. I'd been struggling with loosely associated "great" ideas for over a year. The notion that brighter isn't necessarily better also gave me plans for less direct lighting-after all one isn't always shaving or putting on makeup. Integrating something of nature into the bathroom-table top fountains, plants, an aquarium, etc.-while it seems a bit `70s, certainly isn't a bad one; furthermore it's affordable and not terribly space intensive.

Still while it's nice to see how the other half lives-or at least the other 5%- the book really is more of a coffee table display than a practical book for the average home owner to make design plans.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gorgeous photographic journey into the art of the bath, February 22, 2002

By	m.a.r.i.l.y.n (East Coast, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

A relatively short book (less than 100 pages), what "The Japanese Bath" lacks in length it makes up for in content. Just about every page is filled with beautiful, full color photos ranging from small, home baths, to exquisite, private baths found in spas, to the large, community baths found in Japan. The authors keep the writing brief and simple, but it's nonetheless enlightening and captures well the Japanese mindset towards bathing.

Paragraphs on how to build a Japanese bath from scratch are absent, but a great emphasis is placed on the points that make the Japanese bath so unique: lighting, depth, materials. The book provides abundant inspiration for creating your own design, without providing actual builders plans.

If your wish is to incorporate a Japanese bath into your home, or simply to visit one, the resources guide in the back of the book will prove very useful. Most suppliers and spas are on the West Coast, but many have web addresses where they can be reached. One of the finest, Ki Arts, boasts "the flexibility to work anywhere in the world" since they utilize the traditional Japanese joinery system for their projects.

All in all, "The Japanese Bath" gives truth to the adage that great things can come in small packages. It is a diminutive, but excellent volume for those interested in the topic.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice but confusing book, September 28, 2001

By	J. Romkey "computer guy" (West Lebanon, NH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The descriptions in the book were appropriate and accurate but the photos were mostly of baths in California! I was really hoping for more photos of actual Japanese baths in Japan, and was confused by the choice to include many California baths.