Japanese Garden Stone Basins

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Japanese Garden Stone Basins Arrangement - Tsukubai

Tsukubai are found in Japanese gardens of all types and sizes. A tsukubai is an arrangement of a stone water basin and stones, often with a bamboo spout pouring water.

Tsukubai - Japanese Garden Stone Basins arrangement

A tsukubai is an arrangement found in very many Japanese gardens involving a stone water basin and four surrounding stones. A tsukubai provides a very Japanese touch for your garden.

'Tsukubai' literally means 'stooping basin' or 'crouching basin'; the stone basin (chozubachi) is placed on the ground, near the entrance to a garden or tea ceremony room, and guests stoop or crouch to wash their hands and rinse their mouths at the tsukubai before entering.

Often tsukubai have bamboo ladles placed across the top of the stone basin, and water pouring into the basin from a bamboo pipe (kakei). They usually have small pebbles scattered around the base, and larger stones placed around the tsukubai area – stones are very important in Japanese gardening.

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The basic tsukubai Japanese Garden Stone Basins arrangement has a large flat stone in front of the basin for the guest to stand on, small stones to either side where he can rest his lantern and perhaps a bowl of hot water, and a large standing stone at the back to provide contrast and balance. Often a stone lantern is placed at the back of the arrangement too – the strong vertical alignment of the lantern is also good for contrast and balance with the flat alignment of the tsukubai.

The area between the stones is called the 'sea', and is usually covered with pebbles or coarse sand/gravel. So when the tsukubai is arranged like this it's called a 'centre of sea' arrangement because the basin is in the middle of the sea. The alternative tsukubai arrangement is 'edge of sea', where the basin is placed – you guessed it – on the edge of the sea.