The towel stays out of Zaborin’s water

The towel stays out of the water, even in a private bath. Japan National Tourism Organization makes the point in its guide to bathing customs: the good manners expected in a public bath continue to apply when the bath is private. Washing before entering belongs to the same sequence. Privacy can change who is present without changing the practice. JNTO, 31 March 2022.

At Zaborin, the Hokkaido ryokan describes fifteen villa suites, each with two private onsen: one indoors, one open-air. The baths belong to every suite’s basic arrangement. Their use can follow a personal timetable within the accommodation. Zaborin.

JNTO distinguishes a bath within a guest room from a private bath elsewhere in a hotel that can be booked by the hour. Both are private, but they distribute time differently. A bath attached to the room removes the separate reservation from that part of the day. Zaborin carries that temporal freedom through every suite: bathing belongs to the accommodation’s basic organisation.

The bath can be privately assigned while its use remains culturally situated. Washing before soaking and keeping the towel out of the water give an activity conducted alone a relationship to something shared. A custom does not need an audience on every occasion to remain a custom.

The catalogue allows more variation in sleep. Guests can choose washitsu, with futons on tatami, or yoshitsu, with Western beds. Some suites include a smaller additional tatami room for futons. That is a supplementary space within a suite, not an equivalent second bedroom in an independent house. The sleeping arrangements vary while the two private baths remain constant. Guest villas.

A Western bed and Japanese bathing manners can coexist without contradiction. The guest need not choose between total familiarity and total immersion in unfamiliar arrangements. Zaborin makes some choices individual while retaining a recognisable practice around the bath.

The small rule about the towel gives this arrangement its sharpest expression. The guest has a bath of their own and still has something to learn about entering it.