as said above water can be one of the 4 elements, but also one of the classical FIVE (wood, metal, fire, earth, water)- used in the teachings of the yin-yang school (onmyou-dou) and in later taoist (also alchimical)texts originally coming from china
here water is associated w the moon, the colour black and the direction north- and also the symbol for "yin" (jap:in) :the soft, female, dark etc...(the opposite is the yang element of fire)
in laozis (roushi) daodejing (the basic text of taoism) water is used to exemplify how something so soft and elusive can overcome even the strongest, hardest stone- (like women charme men etc)...in this context it also metaphorically stands for the (dark) hidden knowledge and the occult...(edit here it is also compared w the adept living in accordance w the dao...
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