水を入れておく水指は、釜で沸かしたお湯の加減を調節するための道具です。当初は輸入された金属器を転用したものが尊ばれていましたが、次第に日本製のものが工夫されるようになります。日常生活で使われる水桶を漆塗りにした真塗手桶こそ、その代表的なものでしょう。同じく板釣瓶も、井戸で水を汲む道具を模した、日常生活に根差した道具です。記録上、この板釣瓶を最初に用いたのは千利休であり、千家流を象徴する道具です。

The Mizusashi, a vessel for cold water, is a tea utensil used for controlling the temperature of the hot water boiled in the kettle. Initially, imported metalware was used for the Mizusashi in Japan, but Japanese people gradually developed their own style. They discovered the beauty of the pail with a handle, Te-oke, used in everyday life, and lacquered it, in a particularly striking example of this.

People used wooden buckets called Tsurube for drawing water from wells in daily life. Sen Rikyû is the first tea man recorded to have used a wooden well bucket as the Mizusashi in a tea ceremony. An un-lacquered well bucket is now called Ita-Tsurube, and it is a tea utensil that symbolizes Sen school tea.