gurdymonkey | Thwarted no longer.

Finally accessed the site on juzu that has been evading me - via cache. I got text - but no images.

"Jodo shu (Pure Land school) has four different kinds of . One, for example, known as a hyakumanben is a huge 'communal' juzu used by the whole congregation who, sitting in a circle, all hold the juzu which is rotated in a clockwise direction, with each person passing the beads from their right hand to their left.

A second juzu, known as the nikka (or: rokumanben guri nikka) - designed for counting 60,000 recitations of the nembutsu - is shown here. This juzu consists of two loops - one loop with forty beads and a parent bead (called an oyadama); and one loop with twenty-seven beads interspaced with small beads and one oyadama.
This second loop has a floating metal ring to which two tassles are attached - one with ten flat beads; and one with six small round beads.

The juzu is held in the left hand with the twenty-seven bead loop held between the index and middle fingers and the other loop between index finger and thumb.

This juzu is either carried hung on the left wrist or held in the left hand. When the hands are held in gassho (prayer position) this juzu is draped over the thumbs and allowed to hang between the wrists."

Why all the angst? Because this is not just a "pretty." It's a devotional object. Saionji no Hanae would have been a practitioner of Jodo Shu, a contemporary Buddhist sect which did not exclude women. It would be disrespectful in the extreme for me to simply whack together a random assortment of beads that the Japanese of the Kamakura period wouldn't have had access to. Just as it would be disrespectful for me to do the same with Jehanne's paternoster.

More homework is needed before I do this.

Go here and scroll down to hear the recitation of the Nembutsu. It's really beautiful.