The ‘sink place’ (nagashi-ba 流し場, lit. ‘flowing place’) is one of the central features and facilities of the indoor wet area or ‘water use place’ (mizu-tsukai-ba 水使い場). In the Kansai region the sink (nagashi 流し, lit. ‘flowing’) is often called the hashiri (はしり), from the verb hashiru (走る, to run), which exactly describes piped mountain water flowing ceaselessly into the sink; in the Niigata area it is called the mizu-ban (水盤, ‘water bowl’), a name that seems fitting when one is filling the wash bucket (arai-oke 洗い桶) with water from the water jar (mizu-game 水甕) adjacent to the sink.
Sinks are categorised both according to where they are in the dwelling, and the posture taken when using them. Regarding the former, there is the doma nagashi (土間流し), a nagashi built in the earth-floored utility area (doma 土間); and the yuka-ue nagashi (床上流し, lit. ‘floor-upon sink’), a nagashi built in the raised, board-floored kitchen (daidokoro 台所). As for the latter, there is the tachi-nagashi (立ち流し, ‘standing sink’), used while standing; and the suwari-nagashi (坐り流し, ‘sitting sink’), used while kneeling or squatting. The yuka-ue suwari-nagashi (床上坐り流し), a sink used while sitting on a raised, boarded floor, is associated with the mizu-ya (水屋) of the tea ceremony (chaseki 茶席), and is thought to be an old style of nagashi. In Kyūshū, the bottom of the sink consists of a bamboo screen (takesu 竹簀); these sinks are called arendoko (あれんどこ), from ara(i no) toko(ro) 洗(いの)所, ‘washing place’.
A ‘sitting sink’ (suwari-nagashi 坐り流し) built in one corner of the doma of an ‘earth-sitting dwelling’ (土座住まい). Water is drawn into it via a pipe. Shiga Prefecture.
An indoor well (uchi-ido 内井戸) and stone ‘standing sink’ (tachi-nagashi 立ち流し) built in the kitchen (daidoko(ro) 台所) of a townhouse (machiya 町家). Shiga Prefecture.
An ‘on-floor standing sink’ (yuka-ue tachi-nagashi 床上立ち流し) built in the board-floored kitchen (katte かって); to its left is a stove (hettsui へっつい) with attached flue (entotsu 煙突), and above it shelving for pots, etc. Yamagata Prefecture.
An ‘on-floor sitting sink’ (yuka-ue suwari-nagashi 床上坐り流し) and water jar in a projecting alcove in the south wall of a multi-purpose room called the idoko. Above them are cupboards for tableware. Nagano Prefecture.
A ‘water use place’ (mizu-tsukai-ba 水使い場) with sitting sink (suawari-nagashi 坐り流し). Piped water is received into a small joined-timber sink called here a masu (桝), which sits in a stepped-down slatted floor area where both cooking tasks and laundry are done. Yamagata Prefecture.