section_path: History/Asia/Japan
section_name: Japan
paragraph_text: Japan
  
  The origin of Japanese bathing is misogi, ritual purification with water.
  
  In the Heian period (794–1185 CE), houses of prominent families, such as the families of court nobles or samurai, had baths. The bath had lost its religious significance and instead became leisure. Misogi became gyōzui (to bathe in a shallow wooden tub). In the 17th century, the first European visitors to Japan recorded the habit of daily baths in mixed sex groups.