The Scent of Sake (17 page)

This was her chance. She moved closer to Jihei, for once not redolent of sake, but of smoke. She touched his futon, opened it, and murmured, “Anata, wasn’t it terrible? How will we ever recover?” She could never address him by his proper name, instead using the word all wives used for their husbands: Anata. Jihei murmured indistinctly, then reached for her, touched her where Saburo had touched her not that long ago. She closed her eyes and imagined herself again in the house of O-Natsu’s relatives, with the man who would always remain her lover. When it was over, she felt sick and dirty. She pushed his heavy sleeping form off her, then quickly washed and returned to her own futon, where she willed away all memory of Jihei’s repulsive touch.
Saburo
, she thought before finally drifting to sleep, hand on her belly.

The next morning Kinzaemon, Kin, Kinnosuke, Jihei, Rie, Toji, and three junior clerks assembled in the outer office, which

The Scent
of
Sake

101

reeked so heavily of smoke that it was impossible not to cough. Rie had never seen her father look so despondent, so frail, as he sought to reassure them in a faltering voice.

“The fire has been a catastrophe. We have been fortunate that in nine generations this is the first fire at White Tiger. Thank you all for your efforts in putting it out.” He paused to brush the hair back from his forehead. “We are fortunate that the other two kura are still standing. We can produce part of this year’s quota in those two.” He sighed and glanced around at the faces of the others. “We will begin rebuilding the office, the storeroom, and number one kura starting tomorrow. This is a financial blow, a big one. But if we were a smaller operation we would be totally destroyed. Now we need to ascertain the cause.”

Kinzaemon paused and looked around the room again. No one spoke.

“Fortunately Kin and Rie moved our records of nine generations, our ledgers, to the outer office. Otherwise we would have lost it all.” He glanced at Rie, and she felt a glow of pleasure at her father’s recognition.

Kinzaemon sighed, looked down, then seemed to straighten. “What remains is the tradition and honor of the house, the reputation of White Tiger for excellence. This we have not lost.”

Rie felt tears beginning as she heard her father speak of the honor, the reputation, of White Tiger. She looked around the circle of men whose fates were so intimately connected, caught a certain squaring of the shoulders, a firming of the jaw as each responded to her father’s words. She felt a surge of energy and hoped she herself would one day be able to inspire the men as her father did.

“Father, I wonder if the water barrels on the roofs were full,” she asked sharply.

All eyes turned to Toji, the brewmaster in charge of everything relating to the kuras.

102
oyce Lebra

Rie looked at the face that had always reminded her of one of the country entertainers who walked in troupes from village to village during the summer. His eyebrows formed a perfect triangle with his eyes, lending his face an expression that made Rie feel he was about to tell a joke. But there was no mirth in the room this morning.

Toji bowed low, his fists clenched in his lap.

“I learned this morning that one of our kurabito vanished during the night. It was Norio, one of the younger men. We don’t know if it had any connection with the fire.” Toji bowed after each sentence.

“Very strange,” said Kin.

“Yes, most suspicious,” Jihei agreed, pulling at his eyebrows.

Kinzaemon nodded. “In any case, we’ll have the construction people here tomorrow to make bids on the rebuilding. We need to start with the inner office and storage area, and of course the kurabito quarters above. They can’t sleep in the kura many more nights.”

Rie rose to go to Yoshi and to give instructions to the maids about removing bedding and clothing from all the cupboards so that things could air. As she opened the shoji to leave, the worker in charge of the koji room bowed and entered the office.

He faced Kinzaemon, bowing again. “They have just found Norio’s body at the bottom of a cliff at Mount Rokko. He apparently killed himself in the night, jumped off the cliff. One of the kurabito says Norio was smoking one of those Nagasaki pipes in their room. It must have caught the tatami on fire. That’s why the storeroom burned first.” He bowed to Kinzaemon and Toji. Toji knelt and bowed to the floor in front of Kinzaemon. “I have no words to apologize adequately,” he said, and bowed

again three times, his eyes squeezed tight against his tears.

“It seems he chose his own punishment,” said Kinzaemon. “He knew what would have befallen him when he was found.”

The Scent
of
Sake

“He left a wife and three children in Tamba,” said Toji.

103

Kinzaemon turned to Kin. “Send his widow money each year on the anniversary of his death, starting today.”

Kin nodded.

Amazed by her father’s compassion and sense of tradition, Rie sighed and looked at his ashen, ravaged face.

The construction on the storeroom and number one kura went ahead as scheduled, with the work on the inner office a bit behind. Meanwhile, they used the outer office for all the administrative work of the brewery. One morning, soon after the fire, the office shoji rattled open and Toji entered abruptly, bowing to Kinzaemon, Kin, and Jihei.

“Sorry to interrupt. He paused to catch his breath. Hiroki, one of the kurabito, says that just before the fire broke out he saw someone from the Yamaguchi brewery lurking behind the number one kura. He called out, but the man disappeared. He didn’t think much about it at the time, but now he thinks Yamaguchi may have been behind the fire, not Norio.” He bowed repeatedly and looked from Kinzaemon to Kin.

Kinzaemon frowned. “Unspeakable! Then Norio’s suicide . . . but he thought he was responsible. And Yamaguchi was behind it. Norio’s death must be avenged. Yamaguchi must be pun—

The Scent
of
Sake

105

ished.” He put his elbows on the table and held his head with both hands.

Kin bowed. “We won’t forget it, Master.”

Kinzaemon raised his head and looked at Toji, then at Kin. “I’ll talk to Hiroki, and Kin, you talk to Norio’s widow when you go to Tamba. Let her know . . . no, perhaps it would be better not to distress her further with the knowledge that his death was unnecessary.” He sighed.

Rie could see her father declining as the reconstruction proceeded. The fire, which in earlier years he might have taken in stride, exacted a toll from which he could not readily recover. Rie saw in his face signs of a fatigue that was as much spiritual as physical. She knew the fire had amplified the bereavement he felt over losing Hana not long ago. His resilience eroded, his normally optimistic view of life dimmed. It saddened Rie to see, and it increased her determination to bring down Yamaguchi, the cause of so much destruction.

Not long after the fire, Rie decided it was time to announce that she was pregnant. She told her father that this time she felt the child would be born safely. She hoped this would lighten his mood.

“Rie, that’s wonderful,” her father said as she sat with him. Jihei was not present, but Rie had already told him. Jihei, of course, thought the child was his and showed as much pleasure as he ever did at anything in the house. “
Ah,
is that so?” Jihei had said when she told him. “That will be good for the house.” For once Rie did not see him pulling at his eyebrows. “I’ll be glad to have a second child, maybe another son,” he added. Rie smiled, but not because of Jihei’s pleasure.

“I’ve chosen the name Fumi, Father, as I feel it will be a girl. And I want a name that portends intelligence, a connection with

106
oyce Lebra

letters. I would be surprised if she is not an intelligent child.”

Kinzaemon beamed, and Rie was pleased to see his depression lift. She brought her hand to her swelling belly and thought of Saburo. How she wished she could share the news with him.

Rie left her father to look through the cupboards in her bedroom for the baby clothing her mother had prepared during her former pregnancy. She also found the clothing she knew her mother had kept for Toichi. These items she wrapped and put away. She did not want the tragic association of Toichi’s clothes to affect Fumi. Rie anticipated motherhood in a way she had not thought possible. She took time away from the management of the brewery but did not worry about the lack of attention. The baby she sensed would in some way help the house as much as the work she did in the brewery. She launched into the preparations for Fumi’s birth with the same zeal and energy she devoted to other aspects of the family enterprise. She knew Fumi and her future husband would never succeed to the main line, but somehow, some day, Fumi would play a role, of this she was certain. Thinking of her mother, Rie began to sense for the first time her own place in the eternal cycle of death balanced by the birth of new life.

When the day approached, the day she had awaited for nine long months, Rie called for O-Natsu. Rie had been forced to curtail her busy schedule and had to spend more time resting. But she was glad to do so. She did not want to risk losing this baby.

“O-Natsu, please go for the midwife. I know the baby is on her way. Please hurry!”

O-Natsu rushed down the stairs and sent O-Yuki to be with Rie until the midwife arrived.

The midwife was the most experienced in the neighborhood and arrived with all her birthing materials. She examined Rie carefully.

“Yes, the baby is coming. Take deep breaths. Don’t worry.

The Scent
of
Sake

107

This is a normal birth,” she proclaimed. She issued directions to O-Natsu, who was helping.

Rie was glad that Jihei was not there that morning to say to her: “
Yamato damashii.
Don’t cry out,” as he was likely to do. The midwife had told her this is what some men said as their wives were giving birth. Without him there, she felt free to groan and cry as the baby made her way into the world.

Rie heard the words she wanted to hear. “It’s a girl, so the house will prosper,” the midwife pronounced. Rie smiled in spite of her discomfort and reached for the baby when the midwife had cleaned her. It was a blessing that the baby was a girl, since there would be little possibility that she would resemble Saburo so closely as to arouse suspicion.

“Fumi,” Rie whispered, and put her arms around her baby.

For the next days and months Rie was totally engrossed in her new role, completely happy, more than happy at the secret of Fumi’s birth. O-Natsu was the only other person in the house who guessed. Rie did not call Masa, the wet nurse, but fed Fumi herself.

Rie spent less time on the business of the brewery, but after two months she began to take part of each day to attend to matters in the office and new storeroom. When she was away from Fumi, Rie made certain that O-Natsu was in charge of her.

The kurabito quarters above the storeroom had been rebuilt, and Rie had to see to re-supplying clothing and other necessities for the kurabito. This remained her responsibility in addition to caring for Fumi and for attending to Yoshi’s lessons. Rie found her days more than full and also satisfying. She was fulfilling her role and responsibility to the house in all respects.