Of the five elements — and note that the Five Elements in Chinese and Japanese philosophies differ — it is water that I associate with the feeling of relaxation. Wind is exhilarating, fire is exciting, earth is nurturing, Ku is… I don’t associate it with anything because I don’t know exactly what it is. Of all the five elements, it is water and wind that I love best. The wind makes me feel alive. When I was in college, I would often turn off the car aircon and drive with the windows open so I could feel the wind on my face. Of course, that was 20 years ago. No sane person, if he had a choice, will choose to drive with the aircon off these days. The level of pollution on the streets and the amount of heat generated by vehicles that have quadrupled since my college days make city driving a slow moving hell.
But it is water that soothes my ruffled nerves; it is water that inspires my soul. My most creative thoughts were hatched in the shower and the most relaxing moments I experienced in the bath tub. I love watching the raindrops, I even like watching the washing machine tub as it fills with water. And I like the sound that water makes — when it rushes or even when it trickles.
Water has a rhythm that is impossible to miss yet exact regularity is not really a part of the rhythm. Listen to the waves as they lap on the shore — no two waves are of the same size, they don’t move with the exact same velocity and, ergo, they never make the same exact sound. Listen to the cadence of the raindrops when they fall. No two raindrops are the same; some make loud sounds while others make hardly a whisper.
The curious thing is that I am not alone in this fixation with the sounds that water makes. For the longest time, Speedy has been bent on creating a suikinkutsu in our garden. Suikinkutsu? Yes, that contraption with the upside down clay jar buried in the ground. Water drips from a hole at the tip and lands on a shallow pool underneath. The process creates tinkling echoes on the walls of the jar to produce a quaint irregular music. He saw it in a Japanese TV documentary and declared it was easy enough to create one.
Well, I’ve been reading about suikinkutsu and it seems it’s anything but simple. See an illustration of the construction details. Does that look simple? Japanese engineering professor Yoshio Watanabe conducted an experiment that elevated the level of complications even more. It appears that several factors can affect the pleasant quality of the sound that the water droplets make.
…under what conditions does a drop generate a good original sound? Is the barrel shape appropriate for the suikinkutsu to generate a good sound? What is the relationship between the natural elastic frequencies of the body of the suikinkutsu and the tonal quality of the reverberant sound of the suikinkutsu?
Now, I don’t know when Speedy’s suikinkutsu project will ever get finished or whether he will feel daunted once he realizes it’s not as easy as the TV documentary made it appear. Perhaps, he won’t feel daunted. He is an engineer after all and things may seem only complicated when viewed from the perspective of a lawyer and writer who is practically clueless in everything engineering. When will the suikinkutsu project come to life? Hopefully, before we become grandparents I will get to hear the the music of the suikinkutsu in our garden.
binabaon ‘yan sa lupa?
yes, binabaon yung jar upside down.
parang mahirap nga, hahaha. anyway, mas gusto ko yung ganitong style: deer chaser
“Deer chasers were later used in japanese gardens as its fountain movement provided an element of change. As the water flows from the bamboo fountain spout, the knocking portion fills and spills the water creating a rhythmic knocking sound as it hits a rock.”
madalas ako makakita ng mga ganyang sa mga japanese-inspired movies. if you’ve watched the first kill bill, i think there’s one during BB’s fight with Oren Ishii.
mali yung link code, here: http://www.garden-gifts.com/images/deerch_small.JPG
Ok din yun ah! At the start we were just talking about a small fountain. Inside the house pa nga just so we can have the sound of trickling water to relax us. Now, it’s getting ambitious. Dunno what the final outcome will be.
pero check mo din mabuti dahil other people take the sound of bamboo hitting the rock annoying. pero ako, gusto ko nun. tibong bang may lalabas na ninja sa likod mo, anytime.
Wala nang mas annoying sa sintunadong karaoke singing ano?
It’s true–the sound of water is so relaxing.
leave it to the engineer. thy will be done!
Ms. Connie,how did you that, capture the droplets while they separate? Obvious ba, walang alam sa photography, hehe.
That’s a faucet, actually, The bamboo was attached to the spout. We regulated the flow of water so that only droplets came out (irregularly, actually). Then, while squatting and focusing a bit below the tip of the bamboo spout, hayun, I waited. The droplets didn’t “separate”. They trickled one after the other. The shutter speed was adjusted to capture the fast action. Maybe I’ll post something about the shutter speed. hehehe
Thanks Ms. Connie, I really am hopeless with all things techie, at point and shoot pa lang ang ginagamit ko nyan ha, hehe.
Kaya mo yan. Nagsimula din ako sa point-and-shoot.
“before we become grandparents”
ohhh sounds like a challenge… reverse psychology?
Hay naku, have I ever mentioned the story of the capiz lamps on the mango tree? How it took 6 months to put them up? If it weren’t going to be New Year and his entire family was coming over, the lights might have waited another year.
This is a beautiful and interesting post.I love the rain.People
think I’m crazy because I enjoy driving in the rain.Your
description of water,waves and raindrops with magnificent
photography made my day.
I hope Speedy’s suikinkutsus’ project will be a success.
I love walking in the rain too hehehehe
Goodluck on this project. Sana Sir Speedy can make this soon. Will love another picture of your garden
These are very poetic photographs! I’m just waiting for the sound of the water drops to fill my ears.
Nice.