At temples in Japan, there’s usually a chozu (purifying water basin) to wash your mouth and hands as a way of cleansing prior to praying. Unfortunately, many of these have been out of use ever since the outbreak of COVID-19.

Since then, it has become a common practice to decorate the unused chozu bowls with flowers, resulting in what are called hana (flower) chozu.

Just as its name suggests, flowers are the most commonly used decoration, however, talented Japanese photographer, Yukari Mitsuya (@mitsuyuka_lp) recently captured shots of a different type of hana chozu at Okadera Temple in Nara prefecture. Their clever and gorgeous design has been getting great praise on Twitter in Japan.

Source: @mitsuyuka_lp

Source: @mitsuyuka_lp

Source: @mitsuyuka_lp

Source: @mitsuyuka_lp

The temple decorated their chozu with colorful glass balls and spider lilies that turn the chozu into a true sea of color, making for quite the sight! Many were impressed by how the temple turned a defunct chozu into quite an attraction:

“So colorful!”

“The art of Hana Chozu, it just keeps evolving! “

“The chemistry of the shiny glass balls and Spider Lilies is unreal!”

Okadera’s chozu is often decorated with seasonal flowers so you can enjoy all sorts of different types throughout the seasons.


By - Mugi.