Etiquette, Custom and Conscience

In the 1980 historical miniseries, Shogun, John Blackthorn, self-conciously bathing with Mariko, is the first English person to arrive in Japan and must find a way to survive in a culture which considers him to be a barbarian due to his European habits (eating the meat of birds he has killed, eating with one’s hands and rarely bathing.)– photo source Pinterest

It is said that “it is conscience that makes cowards of us all,” and there is much talk ot the “whisperings or conscience,” the “wee small voice” and all that; but whence comes that voice? Is there an immutable principal of right and wrong placed somewhere in the mind that tells one of right and wrong? Or is, it not custom —that to which we have been accustomed? A writer in the New York Sun says that travelers in Japan tell of the unconcern with which a Japanese will take a bath in full publicity, and the custom has impressed foreigners as immodest. 

An Englishman who has been long in the country says there is really nothing immodest in the promiscuous bathing of men, women and children from a Japanese point of view. With them, cleanliness is the object sought for, and the etiquette of the bathroom differs from the etiquette of the parlor. With Europeans, he says, the attitude of waltzers is only permitted when the music is played. It is something like this with the Japanese bathers. When the necessary operation of washing or doing other work requires it, to strip becomes a duty. 

On the other hand, a Japanese woman would scorn to appear decollete. To her eye, our ballrooms are an astonishment, and the exposure of the person for display is incomprehensible. This writer thinks that the Japanese are not excelled by their Western brethren in modesty.– Weekly Colusa Sun, 1892

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Etiquette and Daily Baths

From early on, around the globe, daily bathing was fashionable and many societies had public bath houses. By the late Middle Ages through to the end of the 18th century in Europe and America however, etiquette and medical manuals advised people to only wash the parts of the body that were visible to the public; Ears, hands, feet, face and neck. Many western societies did away with public baths and turned to one’s home for the privacy of cleaning oneself. Still, much emphasis was put on masking body odor with homemade preparations and scents, rather than bathing and hygiene. By the early 1900’s bathing and oral hygiene were both fashionable again, and bathrooms were becoming commonplace in private homes. 

When Baths Were Scarce

In a guide to etiquette published early in the last century, the writer says that “soap does not irritate the complexion. Some of the finest complexions we have known, have been regularly washed with soap every day.” The same authority remarks that “the daily bath is now the rule rather than the exception, and common sense has triumphed over the decision that washing was injurious.” And then the writer has a dig at her great-grandmother, “whose only ablutions consisted in wetting her cheeks with a cambric handkerchief dipped in rosewater.” “In all our directions with regard to the bath,” adds this early Victorian dictator, “It must be borne in mind that we only refer to those in sound state of health.” – Press Democrat, 1907

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia