The Scent of Sake (42 page)

Yoshitaro sighed and reached for a glass of water. He mumbled inaudibly.

“Please, Yoshi, remember who you are.” Rie flourished her comb and replaced it forcefully. “Show the Omura spirit!” she said, her voice rising.

Yoshitaro looked at her without speaking.

Rie bowed. “We rely on you,” she said as she glanced back at the recumbent figure and left the room.

“Yoshi, come on,” Rie said as he hobbled slowly toward the office on his new crutches, for the first time without assistance. “Let’s go to visit Sei again. Kinno says he has another surprise for us.”

“I don’t know if I—”

“Yes, of course you can,” Rie said before he could finish his sentence. “Kinno is going with us. He’s calling a ricksha.”

Rie walked past Yoshitaro to the office and signaled Kinnosuke to have a ricksha brought to the entrance. Yoshitaro struggled painfully to the door.

“Very good!” Kinnosuke exclaimed. “You see, you can manage alone. It’s just a matter of balance and confidence. Come. The ricksha is here.”

Yoshitaro inched along to the main entrance behind Rie and Kinnosuke.

“Here, first sit on this step,” Kinnosuke said. “Then use your arms to boost yourself up to the seat. You need to strengthen

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your arm muscles to bear your body weight. Some exercises will help. Here.”

Kinnosuke helped Yoshitaro heave himself up to the seat. “See, you can do it, Yoshi,” Rie said, patting his shoulder.

“Now relax and enjoy the ride.”

The ricksha rumbled off over the cobblestones. Yoshitaro clung to the ricksha with both hands to balance himself as they bumped along.

“I’m looking forward to seeing Sei’s new baby,” Rie said. “Is that the surprise?” Yoshitaro asked.

Rie laughed. “Oh no, we’ve known that the baby was expected for some time. I have a feeling it’s something more to do with brewing. You know how clever he is. Steam power has made such a difference in rice polishing. Other brewers are all beginning to use it.”

Rie and Kinnosuke commented on each brewery as they passed the long line of breweries strung in a necklace along the coastal road as far as the eye could see.

“Look at that, Kinno and Yoshi. Hirabayashi has added another kura this year.”

“Yes, we need to pay special attention to them now,” Kinnosuke replied.

“
Ah,
there’s sake in the air today, isn’t there, Yoshi? The best of perfumes, I always say. It makes one feel alive, doesn’t it?” She smiled at Yoshitaro and was pleased to see him soften.

The ricksha turned a corner and Seisaburo’s massive kura loomed before them.

“What is that, Mother, next to Sei’s three kura?”

They gazed at the huge red structure made of something other than wood.

“I wonder, Yoshi,” Rie replied. “Well, here’s Sei.”

Seisaburo emerged at the entrance and bowed. “Welcome, Mother. And how are you, Yoshi?”

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He put out a hand to help Yoshitaro down from the ricksha. “Come, Kinnosuke, all of you. I want to show you my new

kura.”

“A new kura, is it?” Rie asked as they followed Seisaburo into the courtyard. There before them towered a building the size of all kura. But it was unlike any other.

“What have you done here, Sei?” Rie asked.

Kinnosuke was already touching the walls and examining them closely. Yoshitaro leaned against the structure and turned to look at it.

“It’s made of brick, you see,” Seisaburo explained. “It’s the same size, but the bricks make it much easier to control the temperature. And I have a strong feeling it will reduce the danger of spoilage. Everything else is the same. You can taste some of the sake from this kura.” He motioned Kinnosuke and Yoshitaro to enter while he stood outside with his mother.

Kinnosuke and Yoshitaro stepped through the kura door and disappeared inside.

“If it’s as you say, that it’s easier to control the temperature, then we should also be building brick kura, shouldn’t we? But what about the cost, Sei? Please go over that in detail with Kinno and Yoshi, won’t you?”

“Certainly, Mother. Actually, the cost of building with brick is not all that different from lumber.” He smiled.

“Sei, have you made another discovery that will change the way we brew, or at least the buildings we brew in?” Rie put a hand on her son’s arm and a smile illumined his face. “Now, you go and give Kinno and Yoshi the details. I’m going to see your baby.”

“Yes, have tea with Mari, Mother. She’s expecting you. She’s eager to show you the baby.”

“As I am to see him.” Rie paused and smiled again. “And Sei, you know your grandfather would be very proud of you.” Rie

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turned to enter the house and hummed an old folk tune as she walked. At the front entrance she called out, “Mari, I’m here.”

The day after their visit to Seisaburo’s house Rie bustled into the office to talk with Kinnosuke and Yoshitaro.

She settled herself at the low table and took out her fan. “What do you think, Kinno, Yoshi? Should we build a brick kura?”

“No question about it, Oku-san. Of course we can discuss it with Toji. But I think we should not only build one or two, but we should consider converting to brick kura exclusively. Seisaburo convinced me that they are more efficient, and also safer than wooden kura. Not as susceptible to fire.”

Yoshitaro bit his lip. “But what would we do with our wooden kura, Kinno? It would be expensive to change. We can’t abandon them.”

“We wouldn’t need to convert all at once. We could rent out some of them at first, and demolish others and rebuild on the same spot. I think we can adopt a schedule for gradual conversion, one or two kura each season. That seems to be Sei’s plan too.”

Rie looked at Kinnosuke and tapped her fan on the table. “Good, Kinno-san. Let’s begin this summer and get one brick kura ready for the start of the season. One or maybe two.” She paused and looked down at the fan, opening it and turning it over in her hands.

Yoshitaro leaned forward. “Why don’t we buy the old Nakani-shi property in the next street? Since he died they aren’t brewing now, are they? One reason they have failed is that they were never willing to take even the smallest risk.”

Rie smiled. “Good, Yoshi. I don’t think his widow is going to continue. And their daughter is too young for a mukoyoshi.”

Rie turned her fan over and placed it on the table deliberately. “Then see what you can do about purchasing the property, Kinno-san. Those buildings are so old they’d have to be rebuilt

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anyway. We can build our first two brick kura there, and start with them in the autumn.”

Kinnosuke nodded.

“And I want Eitaro to visit Sei too. He should start to convert.”

Rie closed her fan smartly and tapped the table.

Some weeks later Rie walked into the garden to try to catch a little afternoon breeze. She reached a handkerchief from her sleeve and wiped the perspiration from her face. The cicadas were in full voice, a summer symphony. She sat on her rock and gazed at the koi in the pond. They were growing so big. The old or-ange-and-black grandfather koi had been there since her father’s time, a venerable fish.

She scratched her chin. What was it Eitaro had said about the Choshu radicals, the loyalist samurai? They had gone so far as to bombard English ships passing through the straits of Shimonoseki. The shoguns had retaliated, joined by Satsuma and Aizu forces in a punitive expedition against Choshu. Choshu samurai had been driven out of the imperial capital in Kyoto. But wait. Eitaro said the Choshu loyalists were at it again, that was it. They were still attacking the barbarian ships, against Bakufu policy. All this political, even military, unrest—these Choshu radicals rampaging around brandishing their swords—this was bound to affect business, especially this close to Kyoto. She fanned herself rapidly, rose, and walked back inside. She would ask Eitaro to join them this evening.

Later, after dinner, Eitaro sat with Rie and Yoshitaro while Tama cleared away the dishes. Rie poured chilled sake of the top grade for Eitaro and tea for Yoshitaro, then held out her cup.

“Just one, Eitaro,” she said and sipped slowly. “What’s this I hear about Choshu? Tell me what you know.” She looked first at Yoshitaro, then at Eitaro.

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“Everyone was talking about it at the Brewers Association meeting yesterday,” Yoshitaro began. “There’s much unrest in Choshu and Satsuma, and it’s affecting Kyoto.”

Eitaro pushed his hair back from his face. “Choshu is still firing on barbarian ships, the English ships at Shimonoseki. And all this talk of ‘Revere the Emperor; expel the barbarians’ has support in the south. It’s dangerous. The Bakufu has had to sign agreements with the barbarians. They say the barbarians can’t be kept out, what with their black ships and guns. And Choshu has been buying up these guns and cannons, using them against the English.”

Yoshitaro put both hands on the table and looked down. “But the southern fiefs are so powerful, and I hear Satsuma won’t help the Bakufu again. You know, the Satsuma and Choshu forces want to end the shogunate. ‘Revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians’ is their slogan. That’s what they’re fighting about. There’s a Tosa samurai trying to bring Satsuma and Choshu together, and I hear he’s having some success. Satsuma and Choshu, with the support of some samurai from Tosa and Hizen, may change the whole picture.”

“No doubt about it, a Sat-Cho alliance could mean the end of the Bakufu,” Eitaro said slowly.

Rie handled her cup. “You don’t mean it, Eitaro,” she said. “What would happen if the Tokugawa shogunate collapses?” she asked looking from her son to her son-in-law.

“We don’t know yet, Mother,” Yoshitaro said. “Things are so uncertain everywhere, both in Edo and Kyoto.”

“Was Sei at the meeting yesterday?” Rie asked.

“Yes, and he spoke up, said he thought Satsuma and Choshu might well be the future center of political power,” Yoshitaro said.

“Just imagine!” Rie exclaimed. “What an exciting time to be alive!”

The Scent
of
Sake