Sansuke

Sansuke (三助) is a term referring to the male working staff who provide specific services at the Sento (銭湯, public bathhouse) in Japan.

In Japanese, Sansuke originally meant three types of services: kamataki (stoking of the boiler), yukagen wo miru (checking the temperature of the bath water), and bandai (fee collection).

Another theory suggests that when smallpox was rampant in Japan around the Nara era, the Empress Kohmyo built a bathhouse dedicated to the treatment of patients.

[4] Until the early Edo era, the services rendered by the Sansuke were provided by Yuna girls, who were attendants in the bathhouses called yunafuro.

Aka-suri, or massage, was called a Nagashi, and it reached the height of popularity in the middle of the Showa era; it was considered to be a luxury at this time.

[10] This attendant was identified as the only individual exempted from the gender segregation in the facility, providing services such as washing one's back and massage to both men and women.