Maomi Ofuro Bathtub

May 5, 2022

The Ofuro bathtub by Maomi translates a Japanese tradition into the modern age. It impresses with functional design and scores with the highest aesthetic demands. The soft cedar wood, whose essential oils have a harmonizing and calming effect on body and mind, is beautifully cut by hand and clamped precisely into three high-quality bands of stainless-steel wire.

Thanks to its low weight of only 50 kilograms, the Ofuro is easy to move and accordingly space-saving. It is also ideal in the summer as a mobile outdoor hot tub, as a high shower tray or as a noble sauna / plunge pool. It is cleaned with an included brush. Additional or chemical cleaning agents are not required. 

There is precise manual work in this Japanese wooden bathtub: selecting the wood, measuring, sawing, assembling for testing in the steel hoop, joining the bottom and sides, clamping, milling the bottom notch, inserting and sealing the bottom and — over many hours — sanding. 

Maomi produces the bathtub in a medium-sized carpenter’s workshop in the Palatinate region, and the company’s production partner has a lot of experience in manufacturing techniques in wine barrel construction. This helps with Maomi’s ecological goal of using as few chemicals as possible in the form of glue or solvents. The bottom of the Ofuro is elaborately compacted with rye flour paste and reed leaf. The latter, for example, has been used by man since time immemorial as a building and roofing material due to its stable structure and water-repellent properties. 

“Ofuro” is Japanese and means “private bath.” The “o” before the “furo” is used in Japanese to give meaning to the word and respect to the ritual of bathing as a whole. The Ofuro is witness to a traditional Japanese philosophy that sees bathing as far more than a hygienic procedure.