Some unused photos from Papersky article on Sento. That specter in the steam is Shusetsu Tachibana, most likely he is the last Sansuke in Japan. He is washing the back of the Sento’s oldest customer Sugiwara-san. Sansuke is the name given to those who wash and massage others in public baths. That means you pay him to wash your back. I gave it a try for the article and at first it was unsettling to be washed and massaged by an old man while you’re naked, but by the end i was completely transported. You’re left with that feeling of paradoxical weightless weight; supremely heavy tiredness coupled with a euphoric relaxation. The act of washing like that is service at the highest level, it’s religious and spiritual. At the end of the day he is basically just copying Jesus. Amazingly the owner of the Sento let me take photos in the baths while the cleaning was going on, hence the steam fogged lens.