Fall is a time we can meet many berries in forests. Some soft, the others hard fruits are here and there on branches. Many soft red berries contain lots of alkaloid toxic enough for humans, but mouthwatering for birds … Some, like Indian soapberry (Sapindus mukorossi; my post last week) have so-so soft fresh with hard center that is a seed. In general, the berries with hard seed are not edible. Soapberry is for washing. As long as I know, the fruit of camelia is an exception, though we do not eat its fresh, but harvest high quality oil from the seed. It can be used not only for cooking but also for cosmetics as it is very aromatic. Sumo wrestlers coiffed their chignon with camelia oil so that when we meet them in towns, they smell so sweet. Cooking with camelia oil is extremely expensive, which is specialty in Oshima Island 大島 of Tokyo. I’ve heard tempura with camelia oil is exquisite … Mmmmmmmmm. Anyway, a hard seeds from forests can be very large. They look like a perfect material to make beads. Actually, large black seed of Indian soapberry is traditionally used for Buddhist rosary, akṣamālā.
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| Hair
oil containing the extract from camelia. I’ve heard communities in Oshima Island have public oilpresses in their neighborhood. People there use them to harvest their annual supply of camelia oil. So, making tempura with their homemade oil is regular … At least USD 100 in Tokyo for one small plate … |
According to Mokugenkyo 木槵経 Sutra, Virūḍhaka, the king of Kosala in ancient India, consulted Buddha for existential crisis with his inner hatred toward Shakya Clan, Buddha’s family. (The King had a birth secret with Shakya Clan, mate.) Buddha advised him to make rosary with 108 seeds of soapberry, wear it, and chant ratnatraya. A person with rosary then is to reel it for one soapberry bead per one mantra chanted. When this ritual is repeated one million times incessantly, Buddha said, 108 kleshas that torment our soul will disappear and we would reach nirvana. Alas, Virūḍhaka could not do this, engaged genocide of the Clan, and died in massive storm, 7 days later after he completed the mass-killing. So, making rosary with soapberries is fairly legitimate usage of the offering from forest, I guess. The problem is, the seed of soapberry is REALLY hard.
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| The
seeds of soapberry, collected after the flesh for soap removed. |
With the seeds I separated from the fresh of the soapberry fruit, I tried to make beads. Yeah, I don’t have 108 of them, but my catch is enough to make a rosary for one hand, say with 27 beads? I tried to make a hole on one of the seed with a pin vise, and … struggled to pierce it for an hour. Doing it for 108 times!? Oh, no … Nirvana is at the edge of universe for me … Then, I recalled something traditional in Japan at the level of my kleshas.
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| After
one hour, I decided to use a gimlet before pin vise. The seeds were about 1cm in diameter and hard. It was tricky to make a hole even with gimlet. |
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| I was ecstatic
when I reached here, I tell you! |
Adlay millet, aka Job’s tears (Coix lacryma-jobi) is called Juzudama in Japanese. Their origin would probably in Southeast Asia. They arrived Japan in millennia years ago. There are 7 kinds of known Coix in the world, and we only have Coix lacryma-jobi in Japan. The plant thrives in banks of Yokohama’s natural streams. During summer it develops peculiarly egg-shaped bract, about 1cm long. It contains female and male flowers inside. Female flowers pokes only its small head of stigma from the bract, and male flowers dangle their stamen outside. In fall, inside of the bract contains a small seed for the grass. When the seed is matured, the bract becomes hard like enamel in several colors such as grey, brown, sepia, or black. It then falls off from the stem into the stream nearby. The bract has lots of space inside beside the seeds so that it can float reaching to another shore for them to sprout. Well, such anatomy makes the bract of Juzudama ideal for beads.
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| Coix lacryma-jobi in Yokohama |
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| Bracts
of Coix lacryma-jobi. Nobly colorful, don’t you think? |
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| The anatomy of male flowers for Juzudama |
Actually, there are lots of people on earth who use Juzudama as beads, or religious rosary. I’ve heard it was same for young student of Buddhism temples in Japan. For monks, having akṣamālā is a serious matter, following the strict religious protocol. They are allowed to have it after passing many exams in their monastery. Even though, students want to emulate their spiritual masters in many respects, right? They wanted to act like their professors … Moreover, rosary has a fairly useful utility during their meditation for counting (; this You Tube video has very practical how-to for rosary in temples). “Student needs rosary!” Now they looked around their neighborhood and found Adlay millet thriving along the streams crisscrossing rice paddies around their temple. Bingo. They used the plant for their tool for meditation. Job’s tears have the name Juzudama, Juzu = rosary, dama = beads, in Japan.
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| I
think it’s matured stage of seed for Job’s tears. When we pull the papery thing out from the tip of Juzudama carefully, such things come out. Inside of bracts conveniently becomes hollow to be beads. |
… Er, Japanese founder of ethnology, Kunio Yanagita 柳田國男 said it was a folk tale. In his “The Road of Ocean 海の道” (1961), he wrote he could not find the evidence of the story. He concluded the naming of the plant is coming from pre-Buddhism Japanese endogenous culture using cypraea for animist rituals. He guessed kids watched their village witches and wizards prayed to gods, wearing ornaments, often called Zuzudama, made of precious shells. Similar to young monks in temples, kids wanted to emulate the magical powers of elders and looked around their environment to find Job’s tears. Zuzudama eventually became Juzudama, Yanagida said. So, Naomi who’s not passed the temple exams decided to take more relaxed approach about the matter, like Yamagita’s kids in yesteryears; let’s use Juzudama.
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| My
collection of Juzudama, seeds of Indian soapberry, and the brown large one of which I’ll tell you what shortly. |
The photo next is a rosary I made, a bit imaging the style of Tendai sect. Er… the choice of the design is purely from my taste, no significant affiliation to Tendai sect. (Oh my Buddha!) For the “bottom” of it I wanted to have something slightly bigger fruit than soapberry to sustain 108 Juzudama and 4 soapberries. I tried a seed of Lindera praecox, the brown large one in the photo above. It has a sweet fragrance typical for plants in the family of camphor tree. I thought a rosary with it would be nice. Nope. The nuts of Lindera praecox look robust but easily crumbled with a first push of my pin vise, which is completely opposite to soapberry. In the end I could not find hard and large enough forest seed to finish my rosary. That may have been a reason why Buddha recommended to use soapberry … I’ve compromised my project with a glass bead from Amazon.co.jp and two wooden beads I found at the corner of my desk drawer. I feel my rosary is pretty but … I’ve heard Mother Teresa made her rosary with Juzudama and an old cross, no jewelry whatsoever ... My rosary tells something of my kleshas. Will they be vanished if I chant ratnatraya one million times with the Juzudama and soapberry?
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| My rosary of Juzudama |
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| Lindera
praecox. Their fruit looked perfect to be beads … |
Oh, in
Japan, black seeds of soapberries have another usage. During New Year holidays,
kids play “Hagoita 羽子板,” a kind of badminton using sculptured wooden board,
not netted rackets, and a shuttle made of feathers and a soapberry. Soapberry
is very hard so that when we hit it with a board, it sounds like a woodpecker
hitting wood. The sport itself has meaning. The soapberry is large black ball
that looked like a head of large dragonfly when it flies in the sky of New Year’s
holiday. Dragonflies are predators for mosquitos that can carry deadly viruses for
humans. When we play Hagoita in New Years holidays, we are engaging in a good
luck charm of large sound and dragonfly look-a-like, dispelling mosquitos with disease.
The most famous market for Hagoita 羽子板市 in Japan is held at Sensoji of Asakusa 浅草浅草寺, Tokyo, during 17-19 of every December. In normal
years, it is the very traditional festival at the end of a year with gorgeous
Hagoitas shown along the street of Asakusa … Surprisingly, as of December 11,
2020, the merchants of Asakusa are determined to have it even this year with
COVID-19 (; their web-site is here). Yeah, coming New Year we may need the
magic of Hagoita to protect ourselves from the next “big” one … *Sigh*
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| Hagoita
for New Year decoration. It is said that just placing the ornament in some main place of a house would do the magic against mosquitos. Really? |
If you find environmental issues in Kanagawa Prefecture, please make a contact with Kanagawa Natural Environment Conservation Center 神奈川県自然環境保全センター
657 Nanasawa, Atsugi City, 243-0121
〒243－0121 厚木市七沢657
Phone: 046-248-0323
You can send an
enquiry to them by clicking the bottom line of their homepage at http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/div/1644/
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