When the character has to take a bath inside a barrel or small oil drum that is usually outdoors and heated over a fire underneath. This is typically seen in poor rural environments out in the country. Despite the bath being too small to fit more than one person, Bathtub Bonding still can occur, but it's guaranteed to get cramped, making at least one of the bathers uncomfortable (though if you change it so that way one person is bathing and the other isn't, you can have a subverted version of the trope. Or you can avert it by making the drum big enough to accommodate two people). Outdoor Bath Peeping is another thing that is generally guaranteed. In comedic stories a popular bit of slapstick is to have the drum fall over and go rolling downhill with the bather inside.
This is the only time a bathtub can be outside without it being considered an Awkwardly-Placed Bathtub.
This setup is called a "Goemon-buro" (Goemon's Bath) in Japan, in (a somewhat morbid) reference to Ishikawa Goemon and how he was executed by being boiled alive.
Examples:
- Nanako bathes in a barrel at the end of the second episode of Amazing Nurse Nanako.
- In Arakawa Under the Bridge, it's the only kind of bath available to the bridge-dwellers. A Modesty Towel is recommended, in case the police come by.
- In Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, it is shown in one scene at the very end of the series, as part of a montage of their humble and happy lives back at their home in the mountainside; Tanjiro and Nezuko are back home, with Zenitsu and Inosuke now living with them as one happy Family of Choice.
- In Dragon Ball Z, Goku commonly uses one as the default bathtub at his house. One notable moment is in The Tree of Might film when he bathes in it with Gohan.
- In The Familiar of Zero Saito, disgusted with the undersized servant's bathing house, sets up an old cauldron from the kitchen as a version of this. It's actually large enough for two people to fit in comfortably as he does with Siesta.
- Near the end of Future Diary, Yukiteru and Yuno take a bath in a oil drum together.
- Psychic Squad: Mio bathes in one.
- Used on site by the cops in Patlabor: The New Files (2nd OVA series). Until an accident with their propane cylinder, which leads to them going to a public bath, where a mad bomber is hiding.
- Seen often in Ranma ½, especially with Ryoga.
- In The Space Family Carlvinson manga, Belka can be seen doing so in chapter 3.
- Seen in the fourth episode of Strike Witches 2. With two barrels right next to each other.
- Kaede and Negi share a barrel in an early chapter of Negima! Magister Negi Magi.
- In the anime film Tenchi Muyo! In Love, Kiyone is seen in one just before being teleported out of it by Washu.
- Akari and Chinatsu do this in Episode 12 of YuruYuri. Hilarity Ensues when Akari stretches her arms out and her barrel tips over and rolls downhill.
- The tiny size is Lamp Shaded in one Herman strip. A police officer is trying to give a man bathing in a drum a public nudity citation, whereupon the bather cheekily informs the cop that there's only one chair so he can't come in.
- Cry-Baby: When we meet Johnny Depp's "drape" family, patriarch Iggy Pop is bathing in a little metal tub in the yard - he cheerfully exclaims "Ya caught me in my birthday suit!"
- In Forty Guns, the baths in Barney's Bathhouse are made from cut-down wooden barrels, although the bathhouse has wooden walls for some privacy.
- Jean Harlow's character Vantine bathes in a barrel full of water in Red Dust, providing a few glimpses.
- Chico and the Man: Ed Brown catches Chico bathing in a drum in the men's room of the garage.
- Wizards of Waverly Place: After Justin gets turned into a werewolf, the cure involves him bathing in a potion, which his family prepares in a garbage can. He finds out that it was all unnecessary—his dad thought "ingest" was a synonym for "dunk," so he was supposed to simply drink the potion. Justin isn't too pleased about having to chug magic bathwater, to say the least.
- The bath of the default house in Azure Dreams.
- Lost in Blue 3 has the ability to make a bath out of an oil drum to increase relationship values with other survivors.
- Megadimension Neptunia VII has Neptune, Nepgear, and Uzume Tennouboushi (later, BigNep) sharing a drum bath.
- The ending of Mega Man 9 shows Dr. Light bathing in a barrel, with a reformed Magma Man providing the heat.
- Travelers in Tomodachi Life will bathe in steel drums if given a bath set.
- The first Suikoden has the same feature when you recruit Sansuke, but you pretty much have to make him your only new recruit once available if you want to see the drums, as the upgrade to a proper bath happens much sooner.
- Suikoden II lets you add a bathhouse to your castle once you recruit Tetsu. The first version of it is just a series of drums for the characters to wallow in, but you can upgrade to high quality baths as you recruit more Stars of Destiny.
