The best thing about Japan is the Japanese toilet and the bathing scene called the onsen. Well there could be other things but this is what you will miss the second you leave Tokyo’s airport. Japanese toilets and bathhouses are clean, the seats are warm, they self clean, and if you are lonely they speak to you. Public bathrooms have seats for hanging toddlers and well, the whole scene even in the smallest grungiest noodle bars is uplifting. Now if you live in a small space, trust that Japan will make your bathroom better.
Bathtope by LIXIL, a Japanese company, is a portable Japanese bathtub that hangs, and then folds after the bath is clean and dry.
What kind of bathroom will enrich our lives in this era of diversifying lifestyles, the company asks?
“Simple yet luxurious and minimalistic yet free, where we have reached is a new bathroom space that balances the abundance of people and the earth,” they write.
LIXIL is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the domestic plumbing and tile business, and has created “bathtope,” a new concept for bathroom space, as a new step towards the next 100 years.
The company designers say their underlying question was: “Is it okay for the daily bathing habits that have been loved by many people in Japan to remain the same? Therefore, we considered how bathroom space could accommodate diverse personalities and lifestyles, how it can change flexibly, and explored bathing methods and frequency that would both reduce the burden on the global environment and provide enjoyment. And the concept we derived is an ambiguous style that is neither a shower room nor a bathroom, and the idea came from the traditional Japanese concept of haretoke.”
We create a sense of richness in each, by dividing the immersion bath to soothe the mind and body on special days as “Hare,” and the shower bath to wash away the dirt and stress of daily life as “Ke.”
A bathroom that allows us to freely transform into a single space brings freedom of choice according to time, season, and mood. We believe this is one of the answers to accepting diversity, providing new manners and customs, and connecting bathing culture to the next generation.
::LIXIL
