Men's Prayer Beads, Sendan Wood, Soto Sect, 7mm Bead, Smoky Quartz Finish

Men's Prayer Beads, Sendan Wood, Soto Sect, 7mm Bead, Smoky Quartz Finish

A men's Soto-sect strand made of sendan (Melia azedarach, also called Japanese bead-tree or Chinaberry), a wood native to Japan valued for its beautifully expressed grain and faint natural woodsy fragrance, offering both a pleasing look and a subtle scent. As with most wooden prayer beads, sendan deepens into a richer, more characterful color the longer it's worn -- part of what makes wooden beads so rewarding to own. Interestingly, the well-known Japanese proverb 'sendan wa futaba yori kanbashi' (sendan is fragrant from its first leaves) is popularly associated with this tree, but the fragrant wood it actually refers to is sandalwood (byakudan), not sendan -- a common linguistic mix-up between the two. Smoky quartz -- crystal that has taken on a warm brown tone through trace amounts of aluminum -- is used as an accent here, giving the strand a chic, understated color suited to formal and mourning attire alike, and is also said to carry a faint natural radioactivity believed by some to have a gentle beneficial effect on health. This piece follows the formal Soto-sect style, closely resembling the Rinzai-sect design but distinguished by a metal ring threaded onto the string; the reason for the ring is unclear, though one theory holds that it represents Bodhidharma. Finished with dark brown and iron-grey tassels.

Product Specifications

Item Number: 631w007000000
Parent Bead (Oyadama): Approx. 0.79 in (2.0 cm) – Smoky Quartz
Main Beads (Shudama): Approx. 0.28 in (0.7 cm) – Sendan Wood
Top Bead (Tendama): Approx. 0.20 in (0.5 cm) – Smoky Quartz