Bath

"Bath" depicts the Japanese bath (ofuro) as a subject rich in cultural specificity — the deep soaking tub, the ritual of washing before entering, the domestic intimacy of a practice that was also a social activity in Japan's public bathhouses (sento). Kawakami's treatment of private and semi-public domestic life shared the same affectionate, slightly stylized quality as his historical scenes: both were subjects he observed with the outsider's fondness of someone who had looked hard at Japanese culture through the lens of its historical encounters with the West.