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Chōzu-ya or temizu-ya (手水舎) is a Shinto water ablution pavilion for a ceremonial purification rite known as temizu or chōzu (手水; lit. 'hand-water'). The pavilion contains a large water-filled basin called a chōzubachi (手水鉢; lit. 'hand water basin').
At shrines, these chōzubachi are used by a worshipper to wash their left hand, right hand, mouth and finally the handle of the water ladle to purify themselves before approaching the main Shinto shrine or shaden (社殿). This symbolic purification is normal before worship and all manned shrines have this facility, as well as many Buddhist temples and some new religious houses of worship.[citation needed] The temizu-ya is usually an open area where clear water fills one or various stone basins.[citation needed] Dippers (hishaku (杓)) are usually available to worshippers. In the 1990s, water for temizu at shrines was sometimes from domestic wells, and sometimes from the municipal supply.
Water has played a large role in Japanese spirituality since pre-historic times, most notably in the form of misogi done at a spring, stream or seashore and based in the legend of the purification of Izanagi, and the similar Buddhist practice of kori [jp] among others. Temizu delevoped as an abbreviation of Misogi, although misogi was considered the ideal at least in the 1960s, and worshippers at the Inner Shrine at Ise still use this traditional way of ablution.