風呂屋とは、昔から老若男女問わず誰もが裸になってヒトツの浴槽で日頃の疲れを癒し、すっきりさっぱりする場所。八幡湯にも、年齢、国籍、性別、職業を問わず様々なお客様が足を運んで下さります。
Sento is a place where everyone from young to aged become naked and share the huge bathtub together in the large sento Bath room. Where everyone can relax and refreshed. And still today, customers of Hachimanyu varies with, age, country, religion, gender, type of works… etc.
家業であるゆえ、子どもの頃からお風呂の歴史を調べたりレポートしたりすることが多かった。子どもの私に父はその事をわかりやすく「おばあちゃんも、赤ちゃんも、警察の人も、ヤクザの人も、看護婦さんも、お医者さんも、先生も、学生さんも、社長さんも、下働きの人たちも、みーんなお風呂のなかでは、制服やバッチを外して裸でお風呂にはいるでしょ？お風呂はどんな人でも一人の「人」になって、ゆっくりできる場所なんだよ」と教えてくれた。
Since my family business is Sento, there were quite many chances to research and report about Sento since I was a child. When I was still an elementary school kid, my Dad told me the essential point of Japanese Sento in easy way to 8 years me. “You know there are meny different type of people coming to Sento. Old lady, baby, police officer, Yakuza, nurese, doctor, teacher, student, president of company, and workers too… and everyone take off their uniform or badges and become naked to take bath in the same huge tub, right? Sento (Public Bath) is a place where everyone can become simply a human and leave all the social differences apart for a while to relax and refresh inside the big bath room.”
昨年末、銭湯を再開したことを中日新聞が記事にしてくれた。その記事を読んで、「再開おめでとう！」「元気なおじさんの顔がまた見たくなったよ」といろんなところからお客さんがまた来てくれている。そんなある日、手紙が届いたそうだ。差出人の名前を読んでも検討が付かなかったが、確かに宛先は「御器所 八幡湯」と書かれてていた。
End of last year, when my Dad re-start the Hachimanyu after the fire tragedy, it became an article on Chunichi News Paper. And many old customers came to see Hachimanyu again, saying “Congradulation for this grand re-new opening!!” “I missed your smile, Mr.!!!” And it was a greatful thing to see the old and new faces after then hard hard work to prepare the Hachimanyu back in 3 month after the horrible accident. And one day, a letter from unknown name arrived. My Dad picked it up quizically, but the address was corret, “Gokiso Hachimanyu”. So he ripped open and start reading.
父は手紙を開け、読み始めると「ああ！あのおにいちゃんだ！！」と差出人がわかったらしい。
それは、拘置所からの手紙で服役中のヤクザさんからの手紙だった。新聞の記事を読んでとても驚き、お世話になっていたおじさんの事を思ったら手紙を書かずにいられなかったとのこと。拘置所での入浴時間は１人15分程度…その、短い時間に毎日に八幡湯とおじさんを思い出すとのこと。自分の服役期間が4、5年であること。そして、出所したら必ずまた入りにいくのでそれまで元気に頑張っていて欲しい、などの内容が書かれていた。
私の父は分け隔てなく「人」と接するプロフェッショナルだと、娘である私は思う。日本語を学びにきた海外からの留学生であろうと、外国人の教授であろうと、いつもの名古屋弁でにこにこしながら話す。時に、絵を書いてコミュニケーションをとる。
“Ah! I know this young guy!!” Soon my Dad realized the writer of this letter. It was sent from a Yakuza who is still in a Jail today.
And it was written… how much he was surprised to read the news on the paper about the fire accident and the re-opening only after 3 months of the tragedy. He couldn’t resist from writing a letter to Mr.Hachimanyu because he was so kind, and it was greatful moment for him to be there as a person even though he was a Yakuza. In the prison, they only have 15 mins for the bath time, and there are not a single day that he won’t think about Mr.Hachimanyu while he takes the short bath time inside the jail. He still have to be in there for 4-5 years, but he promised to come back to Hachimanyu as soon as he is out and so, how much he needs Mr.Hachimanyu to keep running the Hachimanyu until that day. He also wrote, “I know it’s a tough work as you get older, but please hang in there.”
As one of the daughter of Hachimanyu, I think my Dad is professional in treating people as a person. He doesn’t understand other laungage but Nagoya dialect (NAGOYA-BEN) so he draw pictures to communicate with foreign customers. Even if it’s a student who just came to Japan, or a famouse professor, it’s not a big deal for him. As long as the others were also eager to communicate, he will respond in any meanings. 🙂
八幡湯に一歩足を踏み入れたら、そこは誰もが社会的立場も役職も階級も性別も国籍も関係ない「人」になれる場所。相手が何歳であろうと、何人であろうと人として最低限の尊敬と敬意をお互いに払う。それが八幡湯のルール。外の世界で張りつめた社会の縦と横の線がふっと力を抜ける場所。昔ながらの日本の良さは、お客さんたちの協力なしには維持出来ない環境そのもの。無形であるからこそ、忘れがちな大切なものが今日の八幡湯にはまだあることを、心から感謝しています。
Once you get inside the Hachimanyu, it’s a place where you will be and you will treat others simply as a person. Social standing, position, gender, country, whatever position you may have… it doesn’t matter when you take a bath in here. There are just one simple rule, to respect each other eventhough the others were older or younger. This is not a special thing of Hachimanyu, but it’s a Japanese heritage from long time ago. And Hachimanyu was just so lucky to have greatful customers to understand, maintain and even renovate this wonderful heritage in this 21st Sentury. Environment is something we never can touch or count, but once we lost it’s very difficult to regain. There for, we are genuinly thankful to our wonderful customers.
Lastly, this is just my opinion though- even today, there are TATEMAE rules as tastic understanding in Japan. Maybe that’s why Public Bath was one of the important place for Japanese cutlure since long time ago.
Hachimanyu 