The Scent of Sake (18 page)

Rie was pleased to see her father showing affection for his new grandchild, as much as he had shown toward Yoshitaro, even though Fumi would have no place in the main house. In the evening after dinner he often held Fumi on his lap. Even Yoshi was

108
oyce Lebra

curious about the new baby and wanted to hold her. He had tried once to lift her. This Rie forbade as it raised painful memories of her own lapse with Toichi. Rie became a most watchful mother.

Several months later, as Rie held Fumi after dinner and sat with her father, O-Natsu’s voice came from beyond the shoji.

“Excuse me, may I come in?” “Of course,” Kinzaemon replied.

O-Natsu entered slowly, reluctantly, it seemed to Rie. She looked up. “Yes, O-Natsu?”

“Well, I was in the market this morning,” she began, then paused, looking first at Rie, then at Kinzaemon.

Rie smiled to hide her uneasiness. “Gossiping again?”

“I was talking to one of the maids who knows people at the Kitaya. She says the geisha O-Yumi has had a child, a girl. They believe she is your husband’s child.”

Rie gasped. “What! What does he think he’s doing, spawning children all over town?” She hugged Fumi closely.

“I believe the problem is that he’s not thinking,” Kinzaemon replied, pulling at his ear.

“What shall we do, Father? Try to ignore it? Or give my husband a stern talk? Perhaps it should come from you.” Rie put a hand over her mouth, aghast at this latest outrage by Jihei.

Rie handed Fumi to her father, touched the column as she passed, and went out to the garden, to her rock, her refuge.

She put her hands on her face and swayed back and forth for several minutes. Just when she was so happy with Fumi, her own special child, whose father was the most important man in her life, Jihei had to destroy her sense of well-being, her chance for happiness. What could she do? How could she recover from yet another assault?

Rie awoke the next morning still angry about this new woman, O-Yumi’s child by Jihei, wondering as she had most of the night what action, if any, the house should take about this other child. As she went about her work during the day she kept thinking, pondering. There must be a way to turn this disaster around, to find some way out of this new cloud that had blown into their lives. In the evening she was glad that Jihei was not present because she had an idea.

“Father,” Rie began, and paused. She took a deep breath. “You know that Jihei has had another child by a geisha. I’ve been thinking all day about what we should do.”

“Yes, Rie, so have I.” Kinzaemon ran a hand through his bushy hair and over his face. “I haven’t decided yet what we should do about this disgrace, if anything. Of course the child is not really our responsibility, though if Jihei’s philandering becomes public, then it will affect our reputation, inevitably.”

“I’m wondering, Father,” Rie said as she patted Fumi on her

110
oyce Lebra

lap, “what if we took in this child as we have Yoshi, though of course she wouldn’t inherit or be heir. Couldn’t we raise her as our own, then send her out, marry her into another brewing family? That way we’d be expanding our connections, our enterprise.”

“Hmm.”
Kinzaemon took a sip of sake, then closed his eyes for a moment. “That’s an interesting idea, Rie, one I haven’t really heard of before among brewing houses, though perhaps it happens without becoming public.” He folded his hands on the table in front of him and frowned.

“Well, in fact, Father, if Jihei spawns another child or two we could bring more than one into the house. Just think of the
do-zokudan
we could create!” The dynasty her father had always dreamed of began to take shape in her imagination. “It’s rather exciting, don’t you think?” Rie sat straight, inspired by her own idea. “Of course it would mean more work for me, for the maids, for all of us. But if it expands our enterprise, then we would be able to hire more help. Besides, it would be a better life for the children than in the water world.” Rie relished the idea of being able to redeem herself in her father’s eyes, to fulfill some of her duty to the house, to enlarge the White Tiger enterprise.

“Let me think about it tonight, Rie.” He looked at Rie and reached for Fumi, who went to her grandfather whenever she saw him. She reached for his eyebrows, fascinated. “Sometimes I think you’ll be as good a brewer as anyone in the whole district,” Kinzaemon said, smiling.

Rie bowed, unable to conceal her pleasure at her father’s compliment. She stood and held out her hands. “I’ll take Fumi to bed with me, Father. It’s her bedtime. Sleep well.” She smiled and glanced at her father as he sat motionless, his hands still folded on the table.

The next morning Rie went to the breakfast table early to speak with her father before Jihei arrived from nightly activities.

The Scent
of
Sake

111

“Good morning, Father.” She handed Fumi to O-Natsu for feeding in the kitchen.

“And what do you think of my suggestion of last evening? I know you have given it some careful consideration.” She picked up a bowl of miso soup and sipped.

“Yes, I have, Ri-chan,” Her father did not often use this term of affection. “And I like the idea. Yes, let’s see if the child is healthy, normal, then we can take her in. I doubt the geisha will object.” Kinzaemon continued eating his rice and plum pickle.

“So shall we ask my husband about the baby’s health when he arrives?”

“I’ll do that, Rie. You won’t have to. Then if the infant appears normal, I’ll ask him to make arrangements to adopt her, just as he did with Yoshi.”

“He may wonder at our motivation. We don’t have to explain it to him, do we, Father?” Rie looked at him expectantly.

“There’s no need,” her father replied.

Rie would enjoy this small pleasure, not explaining to Jihei, keeping him off balance a little.

One afternoon, a few months later, as Rie was caring for Fumi and Yoshi, O-Natsu came into the children’s room.

“Look, O-Natsu,” Rie said. “Don’t they play well together?” Rie was no longer so worried about Yoshi picking up Fumi, but she still warned him always to be careful of his little sister.

“Yes,” O-Natsu agreed. “It’s good to see.” She paused and bowed, her hands crossed formally in front of her.

Rie looked up. “Is something on your mind, O-Natsu?

O-Natsu bowed again before speaking. “It seems, I was told in the market, that another geisha is pregnant by your husband, O-Toki. She believes it will be another girl.” O-Natsu pursed her lips and nearly closed her eyes, so close to tears. She had not heard of Rie’s plans for bringing more children into the house

112
oyce Lebra

and what it might portend. And as much as it angered Rie to know, she would not let his infidelities consume her.

Rie exhaled loudly.
“Huh!”
She paused and turned to Yoshi. “Yoshi, will you go to Kinnosuke in the office and ask if he has

any errands for you?”

Yoshi left the room, eager to go about his favorite activity, helping Kinnosuke.

“I didn’t want Yoshi to hear the details. But my husband will give the house a bad reputation in the water world at this rate.” She paused. “Don’t worry, O-Natsu, my father and I have a plan to deal with this situation, a plan that will help the house in the long run.”

Rie stepped into the office and asked her father to join her at the Butsudan, the place where the most intimate details of the family were often discussed, before the ancestors. She followed her father to the main room, noting that he had become more stooped than she had realized. She placed a zabuton in front of the altar for her father and joined him.

Rie bowed slightly toward the Butsudan, then to her father. “Father, O-Natsu has just told me that O-Toki, Yoshi’s mother, is also due to have a daughter by my husband. Now there will be two girls that we might bring into the house. I think perhaps we should do so as soon as possible, to avoid news of this scandalous behavior being spread widely around town.” She looked at her father inquisitively.

“All right, Rie. I’ll speak to Jihei this afternoon and have him go to both places and make arrangements to bring them here as soon as the babies are ready. Yes, his behavior is quite outrageous.” He ran his hand over his face.

“And perhaps he will be embarrassed enough to remain at home this evening. I would like to speak to him as well, maybe before you do. Yes, would you wait until tomorrow morning,

The Scent
of
Sake

113

please?” Rie wanted to embarrass Jihei, if it were in fact possible. “I have never heard of such behavior in another brewing house.

I feel shame,” her father said.

She prayed her father wouldn’t fall into melancholy as he was apt to since Toichi’s death, then his wife’s. “We’ll turn this disaster into an advantage for the house, Father. I feel certain of it.”

That evening Jihei did in fact retire at home for a change. When he entered the bedroom Rie was still up, seated before her mirror, arranging her long luxuriant hair.

Rie spoke as Jihei was lying on his futon, hands behind his head. “I hear that you have fathered two more children with geishas, at the Sawaraya and Kitaya, she said, turning slightly to look at him.

Jihei’s face flushed beyond the effects of the sake. He turned so that his back was toward Rie, his face hidden from the glimmer of the lamps. “That is true, yes,” he mumbled.

“We want to adopt them,” Rie stated firmly. She looked at his reflection in her mirror.

“We . . . we do?” he stammered and turned toward her.

Rie enjoyed Jihei’s consternation. She glanced in the mirror again. She wanted to make him wonder. It was a small pleasure she allowed herself in their unsatisfactory relationship.

“Father and I think it would be wise to have three or more children, in case anything should happen to Yoshitaro.” Rie continued combing her hair.

“What could happen?” he stuttered. “There’s no question about his succession, is there?”

“No question now. It’s settled with him. But I’ve noticed that he isn’t the most robust child, haven’t you? We never know, no matter how careful we are about a child’s health.” She stopped, thinking suddenly of Toichi. She had not wanted to bring up her own painful memory just at this point. She only wanted Jihei to