During mid 19th century Japan, late Edo era, the Japanese were making less colorful and decorative cloisonné beads for rosaries. It was not until the early Meiji, beginning in 1868, that they went into the production of making the colorful and decorative beads (like Stefany's and mine) easily adaptable as beads for necklaces which they could now wear and export.

However, there are beautiful examples of extremely fine cloisonné ojime beads from both the Edo and Meiji Eras. LIke the rosary, ojime were a jewelry substitute which men could enjoy; and like kansashi and obidome for women, ojime and rosaries for men evaded sumptuary laws because they were functional.

Reading the Wikipedia bio for James Lord Bowes, it appears he was an enthusiast for all things Japanese right at the turn of the 19th century, when Japan opened to the West.

His analysis of the progression of Japanese cloisonne was wildly imaginative and did not correspond to what was later determined to be the historical reality.

So I think perhaps he was just guessing about mala beads. The Victoria & Albert beads were apparently purchased at the 1867 Paris exhibition. Were they advertised then as ojime, or is that a later description by V&A curators?

Bowes:
"180. A collection of beads (judzu), the entire surfaces of which are enamelled. They were used in the rosaries of the monks in Japan."

'Judzu' is also a word used in China for 'beads' in general. 'Rosaries' could refer to either prayer bracelets or mala necklaces.

Too many times, 'Ojime' simply refers to beads with holes large enough to be adapted for usage as slide closures for inro.

History changes through interpretation.

Re-reading various books on Japanese cloisonne, the historical sequence seems to be:

1838 Kaji Tsunekichi reverse engineers cloisonne from a Ming piece
1850 Daimyo of Owari becomes patron for Kaji Tsunekichi
1853-56 Kaji takes on two pupils, Yoshimura Taiji and Hayashi Shogoro
1858-59 Perry expedition forces opening of port of Yokohama for foreign trade
1860-63 Go-getter Hayashi Shogoro takes on a student, opens a cloisonne factory, walks from Nagoya to Yokohama to smuggle his cloisonne to sell to foreigners (export of copper was forbidden)

1865-1874 "Middle Period" cloisonne sold abroad. Somber enamels, tiny fabric-derived patterns [with a distinctive little cloud pattern featuring a circular center], dull matte surface with much pitting - referred to in Japanese as Doro Shippo.

1870s - new enamel technology ends use of Doro Shippo enamels.

Some pics of an ojime that, judging from the enamel and motifs, seems to fall into the 1840-1870 timeline for Doro Shippo. It's a somewhat flattened sphere - the pictures are accurate.

The Japanese belt buckle uses the post-1870 enamels.

The small intricate beads on the chain appear to use the old doro shippo enamels, or at least are trying to imitate Ming-style enamels.

The brown beads seem to have a better polish and more consistent colors, are presumably sometime between 1870 and 1920? Or not?

I ran the image through PowerPoint, and it got stretched...

Here's the link to the original image:

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O457101/inro/

from an auction a couple of years ago

Likewise appear to be flattened spheres, similar to the one previously pictured

Much better pic at Wikimedia site:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Inro%2C_Ojime%2C_Netsuke_LACMA_M.39.2.367.jpg

The snail netsuke is appealing, yes?