"Even the chinaberry outshines the seedling in fragrance"—a proverb meaning that the gifted show their brilliance from youth and surpass others. In fact, the "chinaberry" (sendan) in the saying refers to sandalwood (byakudan), used for fragrant fans, incense, and Buddhist statues. Sendan belongs to the genus Melia in the Meliaceae family; sandalwood belongs to a different genus and family—Chinaberry and Sandalwood in English. In Chinese, sandalwood is called sendan, which is how the proverb took this form.
Well, those chinaberry trees south of Midori no Izumi in the East Gardens of the Imperial Palace, on the south side of Palaceside Building in Takebashi, Tokyo, have come into bloom. Far from saplings, they have grown into trees 4 to 5 meters tall, showered with small pale purple flowers. With plenty of green foliage already, however, the blossoms do not stand out all that much.
In autumn, branches fill with oval fruit about 2 cm across, ripening to yellow-brown; the leaves fall but the fruit remains for a long time. It is said the name sendan comes from sendama ("a thousand beads"), from the sight of thousands of pearl-like fruit.
Fresh fruit can poison dogs and even kill them, but sun-dried fruit becomes the crude drug kurenshi (chinaberry seed), valued for regulating the bowels and easing pain. Finely chopped, dried bark is kurenhi, used as a vermifuge; leaves were used as an insect repellent. The wood serves as building material and for wooden fish in temples—a remarkably useful tree.