Yuya BanThe Bathhouse Attendant
湯屋番（ゆやばん）
Disowned for spending too much time in the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter, a young master is living as a freeloader in the home of a master carpenter who works for his family. Told to go out and find a job, he picks the attendant’s seat at a public bathhouse, which looks over the women’s bath. But the women’s side is empty, and only his fantasies keep growing.
The story
The young master was disowned for his obsession with the Yoshiwara, and now he lazes about upstairs in the house of Kumagoro, a carpenter who works for his family. When the troubled Kumagoro suggests he find a job, the young master says he wants to work at a bathhouse. He gets a letter of introduction and heads off.
The bathhouse owner offers him jobs like gathering wood scraps for the furnace or sweeping the chimney. The young master turns them down and somehow talks his way onto the bandai, the raised attendant’s seat. His real goal, of course, is the women’s bath.
But there is not a single customer on the women’s side. Far from being disappointed, the young master imagines a story in which a woman who comes to bathe falls in love with him, and he starts acting it out alone, switching voices for each part.
Noticing something odd going on at the attendant’s seat, the men in the men’s bath gather to watch. Unaware of his audience, he plays the scene bigger and bigger. Finally one customer shouts that he’s leaving and wants his geta (wooden clogs), but his geta are nowhere to be found...
The sage the punchline, contains spoilers
Tap to reveal the punchline
“We’ll have everyone wear the next man’s, one after another, and send the very last one home barefoot.”
The sage (the punchline): told that a customer’s geta are missing, the young master calmly suggests he wear the expensive-looking pair sitting there. When told the other customers will be stuck, this is his answer. The joke is that he has simply pushed the problem onto the last man in line. Endings vary by performer: in one, the owner finds the bath fee he hid, and he replies, “The lady will pay”; in another, the owner, hearing his fantasy muttered aloud, ends it with, “He’s scrubbing his face with a pumice stone.”
Endings and Bathhouse Names
This is an old story that has been reworked again and again since the Meiji era. The ending and the name of the bathhouse differ by school and performer.
| Details | |
|---|---|
| The geta ending | Everyone wears the next man’s clogs in turn, and the last customer goes home barefoot |
| The bath-fee ending | The owner finds the bath fee he hid: “The lady will pay” |
| The owner’s ending | Hearing his fantasy muttered aloud, the owner says, “He’s scrubbing his face with a pumice stone” |
| Bathhouse name | The Sanyu school uses “Sakura-yu,” the Yanagi school “Yakko-yu” |
| Reworkings | Sakura Buro by Sanyutei Enyu I; Teikoku Yokujo by Yanagiya Kosan IV |
Key scenes original dialogue written for this site
A bathhouse it is
- CarpenterYoung master, instead of lazing about all day, why not go out and get a job somewhere?
- Young masterThen a bathhouse is the place for me. You sit up on the attendant’s seat and look down on the world.
- CarpenterThe only thing you want to look down on is the women’s bath.
The one-man show
- Young master...Oh my, that lady over there is smiling at me. No, no, please, I’m only the attendant.
- (He switches to a woman’s voice, hides his mouth behind a hand towel and strikes a coquettish pose.)
- Young master“Do stop by my place next time.” ...Oh, I will, I will.
- CustomerHey, look. The attendant’s laughing all by himself.
No geta
- CustomerI’m going home. Where are my geta?
- Young masterIf you can’t find them, just wear that expensive-looking pair over there.
This is not a transcription of any storyteller's performance. The plot and the sage follow the classic version. The dialogue was written for this site.
Notable performers
- Yanagiya Kosan V1915–2002EdoOne of his signature pieces. One of the performers whose recordings survive.
- Sanyutei Kinba III1894–1964EdoOne of the performers whose recordings survive.
- Kokontei Shincho III1938–2001EdoOne of the performers whose audio and video recordings survive.
- Yanagiya Kosanji X1939–2021EdoThere is a well-known anecdote that at one show he deliberately performed Yuya Ban right after someone else had just done it, delighting the audience.
