Temizu sits at the accessible, everyday end of a much wider Shinto system of purification that runs, at its far extreme, to genuinely arduous practice, and placing it within that range shows how deliberately the tradition has scaled purification to match the seriousness of what a person is approaching. Misogi, the more intensive ascetic purification the temizuya rite descends from in miniature, traditionally involves standing beneath a natural waterfall or immersing in cold river or ocean water while reciting purification prayers, a practice still undertaken today by priests in training, martial artists and lay devotees seeking a more demanding spiritual discipline than an ordinary shrine visit requires, and some Shinto and related new religious movements organise misogi retreats specifically for this purpose.
Harae, the broader category of ritual purification that misogi and temizu both belong to, also includes purification performed by a priest on behalf of others, waving a wand hung with paper streamers, the oonusa, over a person, a car, a building site or an object to remove impurity from something that cannot purify itself, a priestly service still commonly requested for new buildings, vehicles and business openings across Japan today. Temizu's position at the mild end of this range, a brief rinsing anyone can perform unaided at the shrine gate with no training or ordeal required, is precisely what allows it to function as Shinto's universal, everyday threshold practice, while misogi and priestly harae remain available for occasions understood to call for a heavier purification than passing through a shrine gate on an ordinary visit.