Dad bathing with young daughters...

Hi.

I am originally from Japan where I have bathed with my father when I was still young.
While I understand your concern, let me ask you if you are aware how deep Japanese bath tubs are. They are not as shallow as those of U.S. or Europe, which are probably 2-3 times deeper. Some of them even have sitting section. It certainly is dangerous for small children like those younger than 9 or 8 to take bath alone. So it is not unusual that small children take bath with an adult, not to mention the situation like this movie where the mother is in hospital.

I can also assure you that all Japanese men cover the body part with a towel when bathing in front of others. They do not expose themselves. As a small girl, I saw all men covering it with a towels in public bath houses ( there are men's bath and women's bath). I also remember my father covered himself when he bathed with me at our own home.

What is normal here may not be normal there.So I hope you enjoy the movie without being judgmental towards other cultures.

I'm watching this with my boys ages 5 and 9 (about the ages of the girls). My 5 year old thought nothing of the scene. My 9 year old looked over at me, wrinkled his nose and laughed.

Although sexual abuse can happen between anyone it does seem to happen most often between grown men and underage girls. That is what I found disturbing about the scene even though I know it was innocent.

I already knew, from my reading, that this is not uncommon in Japan. Read Wikipedia on the subject.

My daughter bathed with me and her mom up until she was around 3.

Was just simpler

As an American who lived in Japan about 30 years ago I saw people walking to the public baths in the evenings,called ofuru, wearing clean yukatas and wooden flipflop shoes, carrying small bowl with washcloth and soap. It was a social affair to sit in ofuru with other people. You were clean before you got in, washing and rinsing off in area to the side seated on little stools, facing away from other people. Men and women were separated but families bathed together. What I saw was that the dads covered their naughty bits with a small white towel tied around themselves. There was nothing at all wrong or lurid about the tradition. It may also have a water and energy saving reason as
well as relaxing and stress
relieving. It's an intrinsic, cultural bonding tradition with obvious hygienic and energy saving benefits. Nothing at all sexual about it.


bonding experience.

is it normal in Japan?

I remember I used to watch this movie on VHS all the time, until my dad saw that there was a scene where the father is bathing with his young daughters.

It's normal for parents to bathe with children in Japan for safety reasons. It's probably more normal for the mother to bathe with girls... and I think that's the reason Miyazaki chose to include that cute/humorous picture of the girl's head obscuring the view of her father's penis from the audience... it was highlighting the fact that the it's the MOTHER who should be there, but she's not because she's sick in the hospital. This scene is powerful because the movie is very much about the girls yearning for their mother and yet here they are having a happy moment in spite of their mother's absence. This scene speaks a lot, as do most scenes in the movie and in Miyazaki's catalog.

The shame and disgust human beings feel about their own bodies is what's really weird. Not only is it weird, but it is unhealthy and poisonous, too.