Hands On Experience: How To Make A Shishi Odoshi Water Fountain In Your Garden or Home
Shishi Odoshi, ”Deer Scarer” in Japanese is a beautiful art craft designed straight from bamboo and a bit of rope or string depending on what you prefer.
How Does It Work?
- During the rest period, the heavy end of the hammer is laying on the stone or concrete.
- Water starts dropping from the faucet into the hammer and the light end fills up. It thus becomes heavier forcing it to fall down and let the water out.
- After the water has drains out, it returns to its original position making a loud noise on striking the stone or concrete.
How To Make One
- Select a site with firm soil to hold the shishi odoshi steadily for a long time.
- Select the bamboo sticks to use (Better if they are strong and fine with no scratches).
- Cut the surface of the hammer to give it a spear shape on one side as in the picture on the left.
- Make another duplicate of the hammer. This one will be used as the faucet. Connect the water pipe to one end that is not sharpened and let the water flow through the other end when installing the fountain.
- Also, cut through the supporting bamboo a rectangle. The length (depth) should be about 2.5 times that of the width to enable easy movement of the hammer. (You could decide to use two bamboos for the support and not have to cut through any of the bamboos.)
- Drill through the supporting bamboo (or bamboos if you choose to use two), slightly above the middle. This allows for the lower part to be placed into the ground and still remain high above the ground.
- Also drill through the hammer, slightly above the middle on the section of the spear headed side. This allows the unshaped end of the hammer to be longer and thus heavier than the other.
- Paint the bamboo now with polish so it does not easily get eaten by wood insects and moistened during winter and rainy seasons.
- Now, the different parts are ready to be assembled.
- Dig the ground and place the supporting bar or bars. Then, pass a smaller bamboo stick, or metal rod through the drilled holes on the support and the hammer. The hammer should be in the middle of the two holes on the support bar or bars. The heavier end of the hammer should be lower and the sharpened end higher when in rest position after being assembled.
- Now, place a rock just below the heavy end of the hammer. This way, it can make a crashing sound when the end is raised and returned to its original position as will be the case after it is filled with water.
- Place the water outlet (faucet) on the opposite side of the hammer so that water dripping from the faucet falls directly into the hammer end. You could place the faucet on top of a bamboo table or support bar so it remains horizontal or diagonal.
Congratulations. You just made yourself the first shishi Odoshi. Now you can help make others for family and friends, or even start a small scale project. The shishi-Odoshi will now work as aforementioned at the top of this article.
Uses Of A Shishi Odoshi Fountain.
- Oxidises water in the pond or swimming pool
- Scares away animals from the garden such as vultures and bears.
- Meditation due to its continuous relaxing sound.
- Adds beauty to your garden.
- It reduces the velocity of water and thus prolonging the period between pond or swimming pool maintenance.