Kamamura Family Residence Bathhouse

What the Bathhouse Is

The Kamamura Family Residence Bathhouse (鎌村家住宅風呂) is a small single-storey timber bath building from the mid-Meiji period in Boso, Mima-cho, Mima City, Tokushima Prefecture, entered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on December 5, 2007.

It stands east of the main house, pressed against the north end of the barn. The building runs east to west and measures 14 by 4 shaku, a building area of just 5.1 square meters. It has a gable roof of hongawara tile and rests on a cut-stone footing.

Why It Was Registered

The bathhouse was listed with the rest of the homestead as a structure contributing to the historic landscape. Its registration number is 36-0064.

Rural households often kept the bath in a separate hut, away from the main house, because it needed both fire and water. The Kamamura Family Residence Bathhouse is a surviving Meiji example of that arrangement, and it was judged worth registering on its own, which says something about how the whole homestead was assessed.

The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes the western 6 shaku as the bath, with a window on the north and a hinged door on the west. The eastern 4 shaku is a privy with its own door on the north side. Bathing and toilet share one narrow building.

What to Look For

A hut of about 5.1 square meters carries the same heavy hongawara tile as the main house and the storehouse. The household roofed even its smallest outbuildings to the same standard.

The walls are Shinkabe, with the posts left visible and the panels between them finished in earthen plaster. That is a different approach from the fully plastered walls of the main house, and the frame of the building can be read directly from outside.

Notice where the doors are. The bath opens to the west and the privy to the north, so the two could be used at once without anyone crossing paths. The agency's description accounts for the western 6 shaku and the eastern 4 shaku but says nothing about the section in between.

Visiting

The bathhouse is an outbuilding of a private home, and visits must be arranged with the owner in advance. It is small enough that you will mostly be looking at it from outside, noting the door and window positions.

The East Well lies just to the north and the barn to the south. Picture the route water once took from the well to the bath as you look at the layout. Ask about photography when you apply.