My Gang of Swordsmen

Chapter 144 - 87: Edo’s First Beauty Under R-Rated Deeds [9000 Words]_2

This kind of household structure without a bathroom was actually quite common throughout Ancient Japan. The vast majority of urban residents, including Samurai, did not have bathrooms in their homes.

The main reasons for this were twofold.

One: Limited space. Take Edo as an example, the average living space per capita for the townsmen of Edo was less than 10 square meters. Such cramped living conditions barely accommodated people, let alone building a bathroom.

Not to mention a bathroom, most families didn’t even have a toilet. They had to share a public toilet with several, or even a dozen, neighboring households.

Two: Fire safety. Bathing always requires heating water, which greatly increases the risk of fire. Therefore, the government did not encourage townspeople to build bathrooms in their homes.

Due to these two reasons, in the entire Ancient Japan, only a few people had the means to have a private bathroom at home. Most people had to go to nearby bathhouses to bathe.

Since the majority of people could only bathe at bathhouses, Japan’s unique "bathing culture" emerged.

By the way, Aoto belonged to this "very few" group.

Aoto, who worked at the Magistrate’s Office, was granted a plot of land nearly 330 square meters by the government, plenty of space, so his home included a small bathroom... Though calling it a bathroom is a bit of a stretch, it was merely a small room for placing a bath bucket.

Aoto had just sent invitations to Kondo and the others one by one. Both Kondo and Saito agreed to the invitation to "go to the bathhouse together now." Only Mr. Chokata had not been invited yet.

"I’ll pass on the bath for now." As soon as Aoto’s invitation was extended, Mr. Chokata, with a bright smile, shook the arithmetic book in his hand without hesitation, "I want to focus on reading for a while now. I plan to go to the bathhouse later in the evening."

Aoto glanced at the book in Mr. Chokata’s hand... According to Mr. Chokata, the arithmetic book he was studying was specially compiled for him by Hijikata Toshizo, someone Aoto had never met, in handwritten form as an "arithmetic textbook" for Mr. Chokata.

Aoto had borrowed it for a simple glance—it was indeed quite suitable for someone like Mr. Chokata whose arithmetic foundation was abysmal and could only do addition and subtraction within ten.

That Hijikata Toshizo seemed to be planning to teach Mr. Chokata arithmetic through a "step-by-step" approach. This thin textbook only taught addition and subtraction.

With concise language, it introduced concepts like "addition and subtraction" to Mr. Chokata and taught him how to grasp addition and subtraction of numbers beyond two digits, listing a large number of arithmetic problems suitable for Mr. Chokata’s current level.

According to Aoto’s observations during his time living at Shiwei Hall, Mr. Chokata had a very routine lifestyle.

During the day, he practiced swordsmanship at the dojo; at night, he studied arithmetic.

In general, he was quite a homebody.

He only occasionally went out when he ran out of gold flat sugar at home or when he craved some delicious snacks.

Since Mr. Chokata expressed a desire to bathe later, Aoto didn’t insist.

After a simple exchange of "We’ll be back later with Kondo and Saito" with Mr. Chokata, Aoto left the hall and headed to the entrance.

Kondo and Saito had already gathered their wash basins, towels, and other items, waiting for Aoto at the entrance.

"Mr. Tachibana, where did you go just now?" Kondo asked.

"I went to ask Mr. Chokata if he wanted to go bathe with us." Aoto replied to the two of them, "Mr. Chokata said he wants to bathe later."

"Hahaha, that’s always been Toshisuke’s habit." Kondo chuckled, "Toshisuke has always liked to go to the bathhouse very late."

"If Toshisuke isn’t coming, then it’ll just be the three of us going to the bathhouse."

Aoto nodded: "Yes, let’s go."

...

...

Qianxun House was the closest bathhouse to Shiwei Hall. Starting from Shiwei Hall, it was only a 2-3 minute walk, turning two corners to reach this bathhouse. The Kondo family usually bathed at this Qianxun House.

Qianxun House had the most common and classic structure of bathhouses in this era.

There was a bow and arrow hanging on the eaves, because the Japanese pronunciation of "bathing" and "archery" were the same. Many bathhouses liked to hang a bow and arrow in front of their entrance as a symbolic pun.

There were two main doors. The left door had a blue cloth hanging with "Men’s Bath" written on it, and the right door had a red cloth with "Women’s Bath" written on it.

Throughout Ancient Japan, until the mid-Edo Era, bathhouses generally did not separate men and women. Most were mixed bathing.

Of course - during mixed bathing, men and women would not be naked. Women wore bathrobes and short skirts, while men wore loincloths.

It wasn’t until 70 years ago during the Kansei Era, a man named Matsudaira Nobuaki, who was a Senior Councillor Chief at the time, decreed that mixed bathing was outrageous and immoral, and mandated the separation of genders in bathhouses.

Since then, apart from a few areas, Japanese bathhouses have separated men and women.

It’s said that back then, when Matsudaira Nobuaki ordered the prohibition of mixed bathing, many men despised Matsudaira Nobuaki so intensely that they wished to skin him alive.

Like most bathhouses, Qianxun House had two stories. The first floor was for bathing, and the second floor was a lounge for guests to rest and relax after bathing.