Sauna Cultures of the World: From Finnish Löyly to Japanese Totonou

Finland: löyly and a UNESCO-listed everyday ritual

Finland's sauna culture was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on 17 December 2020, the country's first entry on the list. The Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture describes sauna bathing as part of both ordinary weekdays and festivities, a place where people cleanse body and mind and where equality and mutual respect are the unspoken rules.

At the centre of it is löyly, the steam released when water is thrown onto heated stones. Finnish sources estimate there are around 3.2 million saunas in a country of roughly 5.6 million people, in apartments, summer cottages, workplaces and public bathhouses. The ritual itself is simple: heat, löyly, a cool-down outdoors or in a lake, rest, and repeat.

The smoke sauna: Finland's oldest form and Estonia's living heritage

The oldest Finnish saunas were smoke saunas, or savusauna. They have no chimney: wood burns for hours under a large mass of stones, smoke fills the room, and once the fire is out and the smoke has been aired, the stones hold a soft, deep heat and the room keeps a faint scent of tar and wood.

Across the Gulf of Finland, the smoke sauna tradition of Võromaa in south-eastern Estonia was added to UNESCO's Representative List in 2014. Estonia's Ministry of Culture notes that the tradition covers far more than bathing: making bath whisks, building and repairing saunas, and even smoking meat in the sauna. It is mainly a family custom, often kept on Saturdays and before major holidays and family events.

The Russian banya and the Turkish hammam

The Russian banya is a wet, intense steam bath built around the venik, a bundle of leafy birch or oak branches. Soaked until supple, it is used to move hot air across the body and to massage the skin, a practice called parenie, often led by an experienced bath attendant. Historically the banya was used by every social class and carried ritual weight at births, weddings and funerals.

The hammam works on a different principle. An Ottoman bath is a sequence of rooms rather than a single hot box: a hot room (sıcaklık), a warm room and a cool room (soğukluk) for rest with tea or water. In the hot room bathers lie on the göbek taşı, a heated marble platform, while attendants scrub and wash them. The heat is gentler, typically around 40°C, but very humid, and the architecture of domes, marble and filtered light is part of the experience.

Japan: sento, onsen and the pursuit of totonou

Japan's bathing tradition is centred on water. An onsen uses natural hot spring water and is regulated under the Hot Springs Act, which recognises water as a hot spring if it emerges at 25°C or more or contains specified minerals. A sento is a neighbourhood public bathhouse, usually with heated tap water, governed by the Public Bath Houses Act and long valued as a local meeting place.

Saunas have been part of this world for decades, but Japan is in what is widely described as its third sauna boom. Much of the credit goes to Sado (The Way of the Sauna), Katsuki Tanaka's manga published in book form in 2011 and adapted as a TV Tokyo drama in 2019. It popularised the word totonou, roughly 'to be in order': the calm, clear state many bathers describe after cycles of sauna, cold bath and outdoor rest. Japanese saunas have since become known for carefully designed rest areas, deep cold plunges and outdoor air baths.

Germany and Austria: Saunakultur and the art of Aufguss

In German-speaking countries the sauna developed into a structured public ritual. The best-known element is the Aufguss, or infusion: a trained Saunameister pours water, usually scented with essential oils, onto the stones and then uses a large towel to drive the hot, fragrant air across the benches. Sessions are announced on a schedule and typically last around ten to fifteen minutes.

Aufguss has also become a performance art. The AUFGUSS WM association organises international championships in which sauna masters compete alone and in teams, combining heat, scent, music, light and choreography; the 2026 world championship took place in September at the Satama Sauna Resort & Spa in Germany. The Deutscher Sauna-Bund, Germany's sauna association, runs a national Aufguss championship of its own.

The new sauna revival in Britain and North America

Outside its traditional homelands, sauna bathing is growing fast as a social activity. According to the British Sauna Society, founded in 2014, the number of public sauna sites in the UK more than doubled between 2023 and 2024, with many of the new ones on beaches, riversides and harbours. In North America, the North American Sauna Society promotes the traditional Finnish-style sauna, with löyly and fresh air, as distinct from the dry hotel-gym sauna many people first encountered.

Interest in health is part of the story. A frequently cited Finnish cohort study of 2,315 middle-aged men, published in JAMA Internal Medicine in 2015, found that more frequent sauna bathing was associated with a lower risk of fatal cardiovascular events. Research of this kind suggests an association, not proof of cause, and anyone with a heart condition or other health concerns should consult a doctor before using a sauna.

What a luxury sauna borrows from each tradition

A contemporary sauna rarely belongs to one culture alone. From Finland it takes a well-sized stove and stone mass that produce soft, enveloping löyly, and a direct connection to the outdoors for cooling. From the smoke sauna it takes the value of stored heat and the honest scent of wood. From the banya and the hammam it takes the idea that the sauna is a sequence of spaces, with room to wash, steam and rest, and that materials such as wood and stone shape the experience as much as temperature does.

From Japan it borrows the attention to rest: a cold plunge within a few steps, a sheltered place to sit outside and quiet, uncluttered design that supports totonou. From German Aufguss it takes ventilation and ceiling height that let hot air move and scent carry. The best modern saunas, private or public, are designed around the whole cycle of heat, cold and stillness, not just the hot room.

AUREFJORD designs architectural outdoor saunas with this cycle in mind.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Finland's sauna culture inscribed on UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List – Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland
2. Sauna culture in Finland – UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage
3. Smoke sauna tradition in Võromaa added to UNESCO Representative List – Estonian Ministry of Culture
4. Hot Spring, Sento, and Super Sento: Legal Differences – Samurai Sauna Magazine
5. AUFGUSS WM – International Aufguss Championships
6. Deutsche Aufguss-Meisterschaft 2025 – Deutscher Sauna-Bund
7. The hottest wellness trend in the UK: communal sweating in saunas – Euronews
8. Association Between Sauna Bathing and Fatal Cardiovascular and All-Cause Mortality Events – JAMA Internal Medicine