Today, I want to reveal you some secrets on water fountains. However, to be honest, I want to go deeper, and I will share with you the cultural history and significance of Japanese bamboo fountains. Today, I want to reveal you some secrets on water fountains. However, to be honest, I want to go deeper, and I will share with you the cultural history and significance of Japanese bamboo fountains. In facts, I’m talking about Tsukubai fountain and Shishi-Odoshi fountain. You’ll learn in this short article how you can profit from these fountains and for what purpose they exist and serve.

Tsukubai means “to squat or crouch”. Tsukubai fountains are generally found in the exterior of Buddhist temples and Japanese gardens. That’s where the name is coming from, people have to squat and crouch before entering the temple or the sacred area. It’s similar to a cleansing ritual like Christian and Muslim do. More precisely, you’ll need to wash your hands and to rinse your mouth before going into the Buddhist temples to experience the tea ceremonies.

This kind of fountain is made of stone basin (chozubachi) with a bamboo pipe (kakei). On top of the fountain, you have a small bamboo scoop. This is this last element that you’ll use to perform the cleansing ritual. In fact, today it’s a ritual bur many, many years and centuries ago it was a pure blessing prior to performing your inner spirituality. Today, unfortunately, we still have the gestures and the “atmosphere” but this is only a ritual with nothing inside. Only a small numbers of people are really enjoying this step.

What you have to remember here is that you must be clear and cleanse before “contemplating” God. You know many things have changed but this is the true. I must go further because this is not a simple physical cleansing like you can do in your bathroom, this is a spiritual cleansing. This is very important and if you have one thing to remember from this article, this is it!

Back to our main purpose, a stone lantern is placer near the Tsukubai fountain for evening tea ceremonies. The state of the art is to arrange the stones around the fountain in a certain manner that only the knowledgeable can tell you and show you. This is critical for the harmony of that place. Then you can use bamboo and green floras all around.

You know, this is simple and really Zen for your home and for your outdoors. You’ve got something beautiful and something to talk about. And it will be even better if you can use it like a spiritual cleansing for your place. At least, if you built it right, you’ve got a good cleanser.

Shishi-Odoshi fountain means "deer-scarer". Mostly, Japanese is using this fountain to scare away the deer’s and pests. They need to protect their resources and their agriculture from those diseases. Later like the Tsukubai fountain, it was more a spiritual thing or a meditative element. You will feel calm and serenity. This fountain is more popular and more known than the other Japanese bamboo fountains. The bamboo rocks back and forth and it makes a clacking sound. You hear the water cooling, you hear the bamboo clacking, and you listen to the echo. I really like it but my preference goes to the Tsukubai because I simply feel it better.