Sauna king.
By that name Hiroshi Take it known in Japan.
He takes a sauna every day, sometimes a couple of times a day. Ota consults companies in the sauna industry and appears on television evaluating saunas.
– All Japanese people know that the sauna originates from Finland, and that it is part of Finnish culture, says Ota.
Ota himself started sauna forty years ago, as a student.
– When I started sauna, there were no rules. People just took off their clothes and went straight to the sauna. In the sauna, newspapers were read, television was watched, beards were shaved and laundry was even dried. Today there are more rules and customs: wash before going to the sauna and take care of cleanliness.
Television is still a common device in Japanese saunas. But change is underway.
In the past, the sauna was for middle-aged and old men. Now sauna has become a huge hit.
In 2023, the number of sauna enthusiasts in Japan will increase to 16.8 million, according to the sauna association. And there is no end in sight to the growth of sauna popularity.
– Japan has a long onsen tradition [kuumat kylvyt], but sauna culture is a new phenomenon. It has started to attract young people, says Ota.
People have even started building saunas in their homes.
– In the past, saunas were mainly in cities, but now they are also built in the countryside, near rivers, lakes and the sea. In addition, mobile saunas, such as barrel and tent saunas, have become more common.
There are many rules associated with sauna
Sauna king Ota presents the popular sauna complex that has come to Ikebukuro, Tokyo, which he has been involved in designing.
The five floors have everything: a wood-heated sauna, which is rare in Tokyo, has been built on the roof, there is also a steam sauna, a “Finnish” steam sauna – where the steam master goes to throw steam – and a fourth, big and hot sauna.
In addition, the sauna spa has a couple of cold water pools and traditional Japanese hot baths.
There is absolute silence and no speaking in the sauna and bath areas.
This men-only sauna center also has a restaurant and a capsule hotel floor where you can stay overnight in small capsules. The fifth floor is a relaxation floor with 10,000 manga comics to read.
Doesn’t sound quite like a Finnish sauna.
– In Japan, they are trying to gradually introduce Finnish sauna culture, such as throwing water on the stove. It is also possible here in certain saunas, but there are rules, such as how many times you can throw water, says Ota.
He himself got to know the sauna already during his student days. In part-time jobs, co-workers took me to the sauna. Ota was hooked.
– When I started working, I often went to the sauna during the working day and spent a lot of money on the sauna. My coworkers started calling me Saunakuninka, and the name spread to television and other media. In the end, I quit my day job and started my own company.
Ota started going to saunas first around Tokyo, then around Japan.
– Later I started visiting saunas around the world, for example in Germany, Italy, Switzerland and France. I have gotten to know saunas in different parts of Europe and Asia.
What about in Finland?
– I haven’t been to Finland yet.
The sauna creates a state of emptiness
What attracts Japanese people in a sauna?
– In the sauna, I can reset myself, achieve peace. In Japan, after the sauna, one goes into the cold water and then rests. This process helps to forget all worries and stress, says Ota.
For many, the sauna is just stress relief.
You know this well Eetu Antti Hartikainen, who is doing a dissertation on Japanese saunas. He lives in Sapporo, Hokkaido.
Hartikainen studies Japanese sauna culture and at the same time works for a Finnish sauna export company. The interest in sauna started during a student exchange in Tokyo, and it deepened over the years.
Hartikainen says that there are two reasons for Japan’s sauna boom.
– The sauna is a way to remove the stress of the work week, relax and in a way reset yourself.
The balance between work and free time, where the balance cup of the Japanese is known to tilt towards work, is sought by taking a sauna. Sauna is an escape from everyday life, relaxation.
Another reason for the sauna boom is that sauna bathing has been relaunched as a fashionable and trendy phenomenon.
There was one starting point Katsuki Tanaka The Sado series, which started as a cartoon essay, turned into a manga series in 2016 and then into a TV series in 2019.
Finland is interested in saunas
Japanese and Finnish saunas are different, Eetu-Antti Hartikainen reminds. Although now the sauna culture is becoming more Finnish than before.
In Japan, for example, we talk about “self slurping”, i.e. throwing a slur by yourself. It is common in Finland, but a newer practice in Japan.
Hartikainen says that the Japanese borrow parts of their sauna culture from Finland and, for example, Germany, but modify the whole as their own.
The Japanese have also succeeded in productizing and commercializing saunas.
Sauna people, who call themselves saunars, buy sauna clothes, hats and of course what products.
– Sauna subculture enthusiasts show that they are part of the subculture by dressing, like skaters, for example, says Hartikainen.
A special vocabulary has arisen around the sauna.
In the sauna vocabulary, the specialty is the word totonou. It means some kind of settling down, a feeling after the sauna. After a visit to the sauna, you feel relaxed.
– I have sometimes used the word sauna trance for totonous. It is a state of being that is achieved by visiting the sauna, then the cold pool, and then cooling off. This trio creates one whole.
Several sauna words are new words that start with the letters sa:
Historically, the sauna is a natural habit for the Japanese. In Japan, it is customary to bathe naked together with strangers, for example in sento block baths.
According to Hartikainen, the sauna hobby may also be related to the admiration of Finnish society, for example the balance of work and free time in Finland.
Cool with a leaf blower or an ice cube
– When I go to the sauna here, it might not even be a minute before the next person comes and throws several ladles onto the stove. Then there are quite a lot of slurs.
The desire to experiment is strong.
During his research trips, Hartikainen has seen how slurry was spread with a leaf blower.
In another place, pressing a button produced a loud sound, and flashing lights accompanied the hissing of steam onto the stove.
In the third place, a large block of ice was put on the stove to melt. The fourth place offered a button, which you could press to get a bucket of cold water, while the fifth place had an ice carousel built for cooling off.
– It’s confusing, but I appreciate the courage to try.
The sauna export company reflects Japan’s sauna boom. Hartikainen states that interest in sauna products is growing in Japan, and that Finland is seen as a model country for saunas. This combination offers Finnish companies new opportunities in the export market.