My first encounter with the Baker-Bates family was about 50 years ago. It was at Lake Yamanaka, a famous sightseeing spot in Japan, at the foot of Mt. Fuji. I was a junior high school student at the time, and there was a cottage next to our house where the young Mr. and Mrs. Baker-Bates were visiting for a summer vacation.
From then on, our family relationship continued until the last years of his life. I have fond memories of their unique conversations, one after the other, as we enjoyed about different cultures and ways of thinking. There are so many that it is difficult to choose just a few, but I would like to record here a few that happened only in Japan, and that made me tense for a moment.
About 40 years ago, my younger brother and I stayed with the Baker- Bates family for a time in Shoto (a very high-class residential area in Tokyo) in Shibuya Ward. One day, Merrick, my brother, and I drove out to a sento, public bathhouse in Meguro (also a very high-class residential area in Tokyo).
A sento is a public bath unique to Japan, and unlike a hot spring, it is made by boiling water in a boiler. Before the postwar period of rapid economic growth, ordinary houses were not equipped with bath facilities, and it was commonplace to go to the nearest sento, or public bathhouse.
In public bathhouses, there were separate men’s and women’s baths, and before bathing, one had to take off all of one’s clothes and put them in a basket. A door would open into a large, high-ceilinged room with a large bathtub and a washing area. Once inside, the room was filled with steam and no one cared that they were naked. Even if the person next to you is a person of high status or a man in the shopping arcade.
But somehow, there was a different kind of person in the room. All three of us were in the bathtub together. And looking at the people washing their bodies, a middle-aged man with a tattoo was there. In Japan, having a tattoo was a sign of an outlaw or a yakuza, unlike the common practice in Western society. Nowadays, some people wear tattoos as a fashion statement, but even so, the Japanese public baths have changed to have a sign that says “No Tattoos Allowed”.
We, Japanese were nervous for a moment and thought, “Oh no, I don’t want to get involved with this”. But Merrick, who did not know what was going on, approached the man and began to stare at the yakuza’s back. There was a beautiful Ukiyoe art engraved on it. Then the man felt Merrick’s presence and slowly turned around as if he were a Kabuki actor.
We got scared that Merrick might be accused of a crime, though, Merrick quickly and tactfully exclaimed, “Oh, BEAUTIFUL your tattoo is!” ……The yakuza’s smiling for a moment was priceless.
Genji Osada, Yamanashi, Japan
