A Look Inside a Tokyo Bath House in 1951

It was the year Japan’s post-war occupation by the allied countries would come to an end but the bath house has clearly grown accustomed to its Western clientele of enthusiastic American officers.

Rougier captured some telling moments between the bath house ladies and their male clients; at times maternal and respectful and others more flirtatious and audacious. Let’s take our appointment and watch these two cultures curiously collide in the unlikeliest of settings.

(Photos by Michael Rougier/ LIFE archives, via Messy Nessy Chic)