The Scent of Sake (5 page)

“This is Jihei Okamoto, Rie’s new husband and my successor,” Kinzaemon said. “Now we have a man to succeed me.” Rie bit her lip as she heard this.

Kin bowed lower than Jihei, as was appropriate. “Good.” He nodded to Kinzaemon and Jihei.

Rie backed quickly out of sight but lingered to hear more. A man to succeed made her father happy, of course. She expected it of her father and was glad that it pleased him, but for her the union had been an outrage that even now left her feeling unclean. Her throat tightened at the memory as she ducked farther out of sight. She did not wish to be seen by her husband, or by

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Kin either. She would have to catch Kin sometime alone and talk to both him and Jihei about increasing market share. There was nothing to prevent her from going to the office in the evening after her father had left.

She heard Kin open the ledgers and begin to relate a summary of White Tiger’s main suppliers, customers, and sales routes to Jihei. She tried to remember everything Kin said. “In this ledger here you see all our suppliers of Yamada Nishiki rice,
koji
mold, and yeast. And in this one here are all our major customers.” As Kin talked, Rie heard the shoji to the outer office open and the men’s voices grow fainter. She moved along the corridor toward the outer office so as not to miss any of the valuable summaries of White Tiger’s operations.

Rie brought a flask of heated sake to the bridal room that evening and turned to Jihei, her hands shaking as she handed him his drink. She needed to prepare for the future growth of the business, but she could only do so if her husband was in concurrence with her wishes. She took a steadying breath before launching in. “You know you will be house head as soon as Father retires,” she said hesitantly. “And it isn’t far off now. He is fifty. So is Kin,

therefore we may have a double retirement.”

“That would be a problem if they both retired at the same time, wouldn’t it?” Jihei asked. He pulled at his bristling eyebrows.

“Oh, we’re sure to find someone to apprentice with Kin before that happens, maybe one of the boys from Tamba. Anyway, Father and Kin will soon be on the lookout among the brewing houses.”

Jihei picked up a small cup, and Rie leaned over to pour for him.

“Maybe we should be looking now,” Jihei offered. “Yes, I’ve started looking myself.”

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Jihei worked at his eyebrows again and shifted uneasily. “I wonder if the daughters of other houses are as active as you.”

“Well, I’m an only child and have always loved brewing, even when I was little.” She smiled, tentatively.

Jihei leaned back and drained a second cup. “I was trained as a child too, but then it was always my elder brother who would succeed, so there wasn’t the same pressure on me. Still, my father always said there was sake running in our veins, not blood,” Jihei said, smiling at his joke.

“Yes, we all felt that way,” Rie responded, beginning to relax in his presence. Maybe last night was an aberration, and tonight would go better. She hoped so. And yet she couldn’t bring herself to think of it.

When Rie drew their futon from the cupboard for the night she deliberately placed hers as far from Jihei’s as possible. After they had lain on their separate futon for a few minutes Jihei slid out of his and moved over to Rie. He lifted her quilt and began to move closer.

“Uh!”
She grabbed the futon tightly around herself. “Let’s wait until we both feel ready,” she said more gently. She knew she couldn’t continue this way, that she would have to relent, and soon, but the thought of his breath, his clumsy moves, put an ache in her chest. Rie guessed that the reason he didn’t insist was that he felt a stranger in the house, his position as a
mukoyoshi
without much power as he saw it.

To his credit, Jihei moved back to his futon, picked up a flask of sake from his tray, and drained it without a cup. With a sigh of relief, she heard Jihei slump back onto his futon.
Saved. For tonight at least.

A few days later Rie overheard her father and Jihei talking at the dinner table. She paused beyond the shoji to listen, a sake flask in her hand. As Kinzaemon aged, his quick timing and nose

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for business had gradually diminished. Although her father loved her, she knew he didn’t put the same faith in her as he would have in a son, but she had promised herself that one day she would make her father proud. Be the son he couldn’t have. She knew that if they didn’t act quickly, Yamaguchi would soon own a much larger share of the market and she could not allow that, she decided, as she held her breath so as not to be heard. She couldn’t wait for Jihei to learn the business. For years she’d been watching and listening in silence, learning so that one day she could act. Now was the time.

“Yes,” Kinzaemon was saying in his heavy, husky voice. “Our shipments to Edo are doing well, very well.”

Rie entered the room and poured sake for her father and husband.

Jihei made no response to Kinzaemon other than to pick up his sake cup and drain it. Well,
she
would have a lot to say were she in Jihei’s position! She put down the flask and glided back through the corridor to the inner office, where Kin still sat bent over a ponderous ledger. He worked later than anyone else, even her father.

“
Ah,
excuse me, Kin-san. May I disturb you for a moment?” Rie bowed and sat down on the tatami opposite Kin.

He looked up. “Good evening, O-Josama.” He smiled, his teeth protruding over his lower lip. “Yes, what is it?”

“You know it’s difficult for me to speak with Father of any business matter,” she began.

“Yes, it seems so, doesn’t it? Well, you know, most men in Nada don’t want women entering the business side or handling cash.”

“But I have an idea, Kin-san.” Rie picked up a writing brush and twirled it between her fingers before continuing. It was important to appear nonchalant. “Our shipping to the Edo market has been going well, hasn’t it?”

Kin nodded. “Yes, perhaps better than we anticipated.”

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“Wouldn’t this be a good time, then, to expand our shipments to Edo, to try to sell, say another twenty percent in that growing market? Can’t we take advantage of it and recover the ten percent of our market we lost to Yamaguchi?” Rie stopped to look intently at Kin.

He sucked in his breath, folded his arms, leaned back against the wall, and closed his eyes. For several minutes he said nothing. Rie inhaled her favorite yeasty aroma and waited. Would he listen to the merits of her idea or dismiss what she said just because she was a woman, or because he knew her father didn’t want her intruding in business decisions? She kept her eyes on

Kin’s face.
Come on, come on. Agree!

At length he opened his eyes and looked at Rie. He nodded. “Yes, maybe so. Yamaguchi has caused us a loss. But twenty percent . . . I wonder if your father would agree?”

“Oh, if you agree, then I know you could persuade him. He always follows your opinion, values your judgment so highly.”

Kin sucked in his breath again. “Well, now, it isn’t only your father. I’d also have to convince your husband, Rie. It might be difficult.”

Rie tapped the handle of the brush on the table. “I don’t think my husband will object to something you suggest, Kin-san, with your experience, especially if you convince Father.” She leaned forward. “You will talk to Father, won’t you?”

“It may be difficult, Rie.” He glanced at her eager face. She bowed. “Please, Kin-san.”

“Well, then, all right. I’ll try.” He rubbed his face.

“Thank you so much. I’ll come again tomorrow evening after Father has left the office.” Rie smiled as she bowed out of the room. Kin could be her ally.

The following evening Rie again took a sake flask to the dining room where her father sat with Jihei. She paused beyond the shoji

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to listen to their conversation, hoping to glean something that would help her learn more about the business, as well as about Jihei.

“You know both Kato and Yamaguchi have increased their Edo shipments in the past two months,” Kinzaemon said. “It might be a good time to raise our shipments twenty percent.”

Good work, Kin.
Rie smiled, peered cautiously into the room, and glanced at Jihei.

He pulled at his collar uncomfortably. “But twenty percent? Isn’t that quite risky? Shouldn’t we start more gradually, say five percent?”

Kinzaemon paused. “Well, as Kin says, we have to watch Kato and especially Yamaguchi. Perhaps Kin is right. The market in Edo looks very good. You know the samurai there love their sake as much as anyone. And they have more leisure time than we do.”

Jihei shifted on his zabuton. He snorted. “
Leisure!
We don’t know the meaning of the word.” He reached for his cup. “And we don’t want to do anything to jeopardize our local sales, do we? They’re secure.” He pulled at his eyebrows.

Fool!
Rie thought, trying to contain her anger.

“Kin assures me they will remain secure.” Her father folded his arms and leaned back, his eyes closed.

Rie kicked at the wall. So Jihei would resist any forward move by White Tiger. How could he be a worthy successor to the house with so little business acumen? What would become of her father’s dream? The dream she’d vowed to uphold. She closed her eyes and forced herself to think. She would somehow have to intervene, so that her father wouldn’t realize he had made a poor choice in Jihei. That Jihei could not be worthy of the house Rie had no doubt now. And that he had been a poor choice for a husband, she was certain. No love was growing between them as her mother had hoped, only an uneasy alliance. She thought of Saburo and felt an unnamed yearning so strong it almost made

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her stagger. No. She could not give in to weakness right now. She straightened her obi before entering the room to pour sake for the men. And to listen, closely.

In the ensuing months White Tiger did begin to increase its sales to Edo, reaching a total rise of twenty percent.

“You were right, Kin-san,” Rie overheard her father say in the inner office one day. “The risk was well worth it.”

She peered in around the shoji, equal bursts of pride and relief inside her.

Kin bowed. “Now we are moving up to Yamaguchi in our Edo shipping.”

Rie smiled to herself and walked back to the kitchen.
She’d been right! Now she knew she had what it took to make her father’s dream a reality.
Later in the evening she found a chance to slip into the inner office when she knew her father and Jihei were dining.

“Good evening, Kin-san.” Rie bowed as she entered the room. “
Ah,
O-Josama.” Kin beamed. “The increase in our shipping

to Edo has succeeded.”

“You didn’t tell Father that I spoke with you, did you?” “No. I believe he thought it was my idea.”

“Thank you, Kin-san. I knew I could count on you.” Rie nodded slightly, but inside she was dancing. “This is a big step for White Tiger.” Rie was so pleased that even the thought of her inept husband couldn’t subdue her good mood.