The Scent of Sake (55 page)

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Tama stepped aside so that Rie could precede her slowly down the corridor to the office. When Rie entered, clerks working in the room stopped to bow low and leave the office.

“Good morning, Grandmother,” Hirokichi said with a bow. “How good to see you in the office,” Buntaro said.

“What’s this I hear about the war being over, Buntaro-san? Is it really true?” Rie asked.

“Yes, I arrived in Tokyo just a few days after the fighting stopped. It’s given our shipping a boost, but I’m glad it’s over,” Buntaro replied.

“I know it’s time to sell now; the sooner the better,” Hirokichi said.

“Just so, Hiro,” Rie nodded.

“So Buntaro and I are going to Tokyo tomorrow. I’m fairly certain the government will want to buy back the two ships they used for transporting troops.”

Rie nodded. “We’ve owned them just a bit over two years, and they were indispensable to the government during the war.” Rie paused. “Ask at least sixty percent more than we paid for them. Then if they want to bargain, don’t go below thirty percent more,” she said.

“Yes.” Hirokichi nodded. “That’s about what Buntaro and I were thinking.”

“Yes, do go tomorrow, Hiro-chan,” Rie said. She nodded to Buntaro and her grandson and left the office. She shuffled slowly along the corridor, thankful that the fortunes of White Tiger rested in the hands of the two aggressive, forward-looking young men in the main office. That Naoko was not familiar with the requirements of a brewer’s wife was perhaps less important in the long run. Naoko was gradually becoming accustomed to what was surely a more frugal, less luxurious lifestyle, wasn’t she? She paused at the pillar and rested her head against it.

The same afternoon Rie went down the corridor to the nurs—

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ery. She wanted O-Natsu’s company. There were times when it was so satisfying.

Rie slid open the shoji.

Old O-Natsu looked up. “
Ah,
is it you, Oku-san? Good. Good.” She nodded, tried unsuccessfully to rise, and moved a zabuton over toward Rie.

Rie sat and moved toward the teapot on the table. She reached for two cups and poured.

“Heh, heh,”
O-Natsu chuckled. “Good for the house, this new bride, isn’t she?”

“There are some advantages to having a Fujiwara bride.” Rie nodded and sipped her tea. “What makes you say so?”

“Pregnant already, I think,” O-Natsu said.

“What? Has someone said something?” Rie glanced up quickly. “No need,” O-Natsu said, nodding. “Just look at the eyes. I had a glimpse at them this morning in the kitchen.” Her smile

revealed several toothless gaps.

“Well, O-Natsu, I’ll make certain. And it isn’t that I doubt you. You have always been the first in the house to learn of a pregnancy, haven’t you?” Rie laughed, her hand over her mouth, a reflex even in O-Natsu’s company.

That night as she sat before her dressing table combing her long white hair Rie mused. Having Hirokichi and his Fujiwara bride as successors was far better than if Ume had married Hirokichi. Now the bloodline of O-Toki and Jihei and the influence of the Sawaraya were finally gone from the house. Rie’s revenge against Jihei was complete. Naoko’s baby would have none of O-Toki’s blood. The bloodline of the main house would be pure, even enhanced by the Fujiwara infusion. Rie nodded and smiled at herself in the mirror. “Yes, Hiro, you are good for the house,” she muttered. How proud her father would be when she reported at the Butsudan.

Hirokichi and Buntaro returned from Tokyo elated by their

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success in selling the two ships at a handsome profit. It was not White Tiger’s only success since Hirokichi had become house head.

Hirokichi came to Rie’s room one morning looking unusually jaunty and elated.

“What is it, Hiro-chan?” she asked as soon as he entered the room.

“We’ve made it, Grandmother! White Tiger is now number one! It was announced at the Brewers Association last night.” He grinned, his well-muscled arms akimbo.

She gasped. This was the day she had striven for ever since that day at the well, when she had lost the heir, had shirked her duty. Rie looked at Hirokichi, and bowed several times. She quickly took a handkerchief from her sleeve and dabbed at tears that threatened to overflow.

“
Ah,
Hiro-chan. What I have worked for all my life. . . .” She paused and held up a bony hand. “Come, give me a hand. I must go to the Butsudan.”

“Yes, Grandmother, I’ll accompany you.”

Rie hobbled slowly to the parlor on the arm of her grandson pausing briefly to touch the aged column. She removed her slippers and shuffled to the Butsudan in her tabi. Hirokichi placed a zabuton in front of the altar. Rie knelt slowly, clapped her hands and closed her eyes.

Hirokichi pulled up a cushion and sat quietly next to his grandmother. When she opened her eyes and turned to him he said, “I have more news for you, Grandmother. Naoko is going to have a baby in a few months.”

Rie nodded and smiled. “Good.”

“We would like your permission to build a house at the side of the compound here.” He pointed toward the vacant area beyond the old well.

“A new house, Hiro? You don’t want to live here with me?”

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Rie queried, frowning. A vague disappointment settled in her bones. She had worked so hard, only to see the children scatter to the four winds.

“Oh, it isn’t that, Grandmother. But Naoko has seen some of the new Western-style houses in the city. She thinks it would reflect the spirit of the new era and enhance the reputation of our house.”

“I see.” Rie was silent for several minutes. Hirokichi waited. “Well, Hiro, you have done well. And it may be that Naoko will help you advance our status even more. I have never opposed doing something new. Yes, you may build it. I wonder what it will look like.”

“You will see, Grandmother, you will see.”

Two months later the purple-robed priest came to bless the site for building Hirokichi’s house. Rie watched him shake his white paper wand just as he did for the opening of the brewing season.

The house Hirokichi built was unlike anything Rie had seen. She watched from the parlor when the shutters were opened in the morning as the structure took shape, each of two stories fronted by a railed veranda behind which were arched doors. Built along Western lines and inspired by pictures Naoko had seen, its two-story frame dwarfed the old main house in style if not in height. “I wonder why they are covering the wood with white,” Tama said to Rie one day as they sat together and watched the builders

put the final touches on the house.

“It must be what Naoko saw in those foreign picture books,” Rie said. “Well, Hiro wanted something new, and that is what they have. The baby will be born in the new house.” She nodded slowly. “Everything changes,” she said, and took out her tiny pipe.

Hirokichi moved into the grand new home in time for the birth of the baby, a girl born auspiciously on New Year’s Day. Rie and Tama celebrated the doubly felicitous occasion with Hi—

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rokichi beside them. All the branch families came to pay their respects to Rie and Hirokichi at the old main house. Even Ume and her husband appeared. Rie felt a great contentment descend on her as she looked around the room at Fumi and Seisaburo and their children, and a great sadness as well, knowing that life has a cycle: spring, summer, autumn, winter. She turned to Hirokichi and reached for him to pour her a cup of congratulatory New Year’s wine.

“You know, Hiro, I’m happy it’s a girl. It will be good for the house,” she said, smiling at the old adage until her eyes disappeared.

“I hope she will grow up to be like you, Grandmother.”

Rie smiled and bowed. He had deeply pleased her. “I’m anxious to see her,” she said.

Two weeks later Naoko came to the door carrying the baby. Rie and Tama exclaimed over the tiny struggling infant and ushered Naoko into the parlor.

“Please, sit here in front of the Butsudan,” Rie said. “Tama, bring a zabuton.”

When Naoko was seated she held the baby out to Rie, who reached for her gingerly.

“We have named her Hana, Grandmother, after your mother.”

“Ah,”
Rie said, and bowed over the baby, tears starting in her eyes.

“I want to invite you and Aunt Tama and Mother Fumi to our house, Grandmother,” Naoko said. “The day after tomorrow please come in the afternoon. I will play my koto for you.”

When Naoko left with the baby, Rie turned to Tama. “Well, I guess now I need a special invitation to visit my grandson in his new house,” she said, pride mingled with a poignant sense of herself as a person passed by with the changing times. Then she shuffled off to her room.

Rie and Tama could still see workmen coming and going, making last minute changes to the elegant new home in the compound and house servants bustling in to help Naoko. Rie enjoyed the activity vicariously from the vantage point of the parlor shutters that were opened to the courtyard.

Fumi arrived in the afternoon to join Rie and Tama for the much anticipated visit.

“I haven’t seen the inside of the house yet, Fumi, only what you see from here,” Rie said.

“Nor have I, Mother. Come, let’s go over.”

Fumi and Tama took Rie’s arms and helped her across the courtyard.

A servant greeted them at the large arched doorway and ushered them into the parlor, a room unlike any the three had seen before.

“Mistress will be with you presently. Please be seated,” she said, and left the room.

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