A look back at SaKatsu 2022 and the future of saunas.
You must have visited many saunas, but were there any episodes that impressed you during this year's sauna activities?
A while ago, I visited 40 saunas in six countries, including Germany, Finland, Latvia, and Austria, and one of the most shocking was the Aufguss World Congress in the Netherlands. There were about 20 saunas at the venue, and like a music festival, there was a time schedule that said, "There will be a play in this sauna at this time. One of the Aufgusses was just amazing. There were about 40 participants of different ages and nationalities, and the session lasted 45 minutes, which was extremely long. I wondered when it would end (laughs). It was like, "When is this going to end?
What was characteristic there was to open the door of the sauna room and lower the temperature once. Once the temperature had dropped to a certain degree, the door would be closed, and the temperature would be raised in stages with the waxing. If the temperature goes up too high, open the door again and lower the temperature... , and so on. The DJ creates the story as if the tempo is going up and down. The ritual ends with a spiritual ceremony in which 40 people walk in two lines to the lake and dive into the lake, all holding hands together. This makes the people who were there together feel like a family that transcends race and nationality.
. It makes me feel peaceful just to listen to it.
Of course, it is nice to go in solo, but there are few saunas in Japan that appeal to the spirit of sharing a common experience that transcends anything else. The act of raising the sympathetic nervous system and then lowering it with a water bath, which is a major activity in Japan, is like shock therapy, to use an analogy. But there are many ways to enjoy sauna in the world. If architects and designers in Japan could experience them and bring them back to Japan, I am sure that interesting saunas would be born again. . I and my boss were able to go to the Corona before the event, so we were able to make our input before the event.
So, saunas have the potential to become more and more diverse in the future. And "TOTONOU (revitalize)" is not all there is to sauna.
TOTONOU" is a method and a goal. It is only in the last three to four years that people have come to enjoy sauna with this as a goal. Sauna will become a part of many lifestyles in the future, and will become a more familiar part of our daily lives. It's no different than brushing your teeth. I think we will see an increase in the number of rentals with saunas, and I wouldn't be surprised if we end up like Finland someday, where saunas are a natural part of daily life.
. It's a bright future for saunas, isn't it?
On the other hand, I believe that demand will also increase for so-called "one-of-a-kind" saunas that cannot be experienced anywhere else. For example, saunas in unexplored areas such as Shiretoko or Yakushima Island, or saunas where you can bathe in the open air under the stars on a deserted island. I think there will be a polarization between such extraordinary saunas and the everyday saunas I mentioned earlier.
I see. On the other hand, do you see any challenges in the current state of the sauna scene?
. there are still very few facilities that women and children can go to. My son is 7 years old, and he has been taking a sauna since he was 2 years old. When he soaks in the water bath, he says, "Saunas are great. I can forget about the last time I lost at dodgeball" (laughs). But the fact that a child can understand the goodness of the content means that there is something appealing about it. Children are sensitive to such things, and I have a feeling that the number of children who take saunas from the age of two will continue to increase. I think it would be great if these people could study Japanese saunas while looking at the rest of the world.
Sauna for the gifted (laughs).
On a grander note, one day, I would like to see ProSounder listed as a career that kids want to be in. . even more than Youtubers. In that respect, we need to bring sauna to the level of being cool, good-looking, popular, successful, and profitable. Otherwise, we can't give people hope. For that reason, I want to work to make people think that sauna work is a wonderful job.
