Nenju (念珠)

I bought a set of prayer beads, nenju (念珠) in Kyoto, to mark the move to Singapore (now put back to 1st June). It was a traditional shop, sliding door to enter, raised tatami platform to work, Japanese only, intimidating to this gaijin. Founded in the Edo period, the shop's current owner was the 12th generation. I selected a 108 bead nenju, made from sandlewood. A momentary fright when 1 million Yen was mentioned, but that was an error! The Japanese counting system has a "unit" at 10,000 (ichiman), which is where the confusion arose! Phew!

Later I began to think about the netsu's construction. I gathered some information from a website, but advice from a user, lay or monastic, would be welcome. It could be that I have a formal Nichiren rosary, but that does not concern me. First, I believe the beads are used as shown, over the left hand, joined in prayer. The counting requires care, as there is no change in colour, just a slightly smaller bead. One of the "leader" 2 x 5 bead strings has an extra bead (seen on the inner loop above). I take this to be the start. Then counting from the large bead (as 0), there is a smaller bead at position 8 and at position 23. It is the same counting the other way, 8 and 23, ie symmetrical.

It would be good to take it to a temple before leaving.