e
Japanese public baths consist usually of a large tank used by
multitudes in common. Clean water is allowed for the face, but the
main tank is supplied with clean hot water only once each day. In
Kumamoto, schoolgirls living with us invariably asked permission to go
to the bath early in the day that they might have the first use of the
water. They said that by night it was so foul they could not bear to
use it. Each hotel has its own private bath for guests; this is
usually heated in the afternoon, and the guests take their baths from
four o'clock on until midnight, the waiting girls of the hotel using
it last. My only experience with public baths has been mentioned
already. At first glance the conditions were reassuring, for a large
stream of hot water was running in constantly, and the water in the
tank itself was quite transparent. But on entering I was surprised,
not to say horrified, to see floating along the margin of the tank and
on the bottom of it suggestive proofs of previous bathers. On inquiry
I learned that the tank was never washed out, nor the water entirely
discharged at a single time; the natural overflow along the edge of
the tank being considered sufficient. In the interest of accuracy it
is desirable to add that New Japan is making progress in the matter of
public baths. In some of the larger cities, I am told, provision is
sometimes made for entirely fresh water for each bather in separate
bathrooms.

In view of these facts--as unpleasant to mention as they are essential
to a faithful description of the habits of the people--it is clear
that the "horror of physical impurity" has not been, and is not now,
so great as some would have us believe. Whatever may have been the
condition in ancient times, it would be difficult to believe that the
rite of ceremonial purification could arise out of the present
practices and habits of thought. One may venture the inquiry whether
the custom of using the "purificatory water" may not have been
introduced from abroad.

But whatever be the present thought of the people, on the general
subject of sin, it may be shown to be due to the prevailing system of
ideas, moral and religious, rather than to the inherent racial
character. In an interesting article by Mr. G. Takahashi on the "Past,
Present, and Future of Christianity in Japan" I find the statement
that the preaching of the monks who came to Japan in the sixteenth
century was of such a nature as to produce a