The Scent of Sake (32 page)

to greet each departing mourner. He overheard Yamaguchi and another speaking as they shuffled toward the door.

“What difference will it make if Yoshitaro is in charge instead of Jihei, anyway?” Yamaguchi said gruffly. “Kinnosuke is far more powerful than Jihei was or his son could ever be.”

Yoshitaro did not catch the other guest’s reply, but he felt a smoldering anger, nonetheless. As he reached the door Yoshitaro was conscious that his mother was at his side, bowing and joining her words to his as each brewer passed through the door. He knew she was trying to win him over, but he also knew he wasn’t ready to make peace. Too much had happened between them.

Later that evening as the family sat together Rie turned to Yoshitaro. She raised a sake flask for him as he held out his cup. Then she picked up a cup, raised it, and toasted him saying, “Now, Yoshi, this is your time.” She said no more but rose and went upstairs alone.

Fumi, sobbing, jumped up and ran after her.

Yoshitaro looked around at his glum brother and two weeping sisters. He thought of the comment by the departing Yamaguchi and once again felt the smoldering anger. Of course his mother and Kinnosuke made the decisions. It was natural enough since she had been born in the house. It was moreover necessary, especially since his father had taken to drinking so heavily. What he knew about brewing he had learned from his mother and Kinnosuke. He shifted uneasily in his seat as he remembered his postponed wedding and the bride his parents had selected for him, Tama. Well versed she might be in brewing and even intelligent enough, but Yoshitaro found her flat face plain and unappealing. His affections belonged to O-Sada.

He rose and addressed his siblings, his first act as official house head. “You’d better go to bed. It’s been a long, difficult day.”

He walked along the corridor, then out through the door next

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to the number one kura. He hailed a passing ricksha and said abruptly as he climbed in, “The Sawaraya.”

At the entrance it was O-Toki herself who greeted Yoshitaro. “Ah, it is you, my son!” she exclaimed, bowing. “You must be

worn out. O-Sada is here. She thought you might come. She will join you in a bit.”

O-Toki led the way upstairs to the back room, the one always reserved for his father, Yoshitaro noted.

O-Toki bowed. “Please be seated. I’ll be back presently.”

Moments later Yoshitaro heard O-Toki’s voice again and looked at her more closely as she entered. His natural mother. She knelt, bowed, and poured ceremonial green tea.

Yoshitaro bowed and raised the cup to his lips. “I did not see you at the funeral,” he said.

“I was there, in the back room. I could not stay away.” She paused and blotted her glistening eyes. “Your father was the most important person in the world to me. He was good to me. He would be so proud of you, to see the way you are taking hold. You will be an illustrious Kinzaemon XI.” She bowed again, then moved back to the shoji.

Yoshitaro bowed in acknowledgment of his mother’s words— words that contradicted what Yamaguchi had said.

O-Toki rose. “Now I know you will want to spend some time with O-Sada. She will be here shortly.” She bowed herself out of the room.

His mother. His
mothers
.

I really have two mothers, my natural mother here in the Sawaraya and Rie, virtual head of one of the most powerful houses in all Kobe.
One dedicated to business, the other to pleasure. Many would consider it fortunate, but tonight he felt only pain. Still, he could move with ease between the two worlds, more easily even than his father. A lump formed in his throat. His father had never felt

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at home in the Omura House. He’d always moved in Mother’s shadow. He was far more at ease here at the Sawaraya, but that in the end was his downfall. He lost himself, killed by the very sake they brewed. It was a fate he had no wish to share. Now, he had no choice but to marry Tama, but O-Sada would be his real life partner, just as O-Toki had been his father’s. From this day forward, for the rest of his life, he would never take another drink. He would only pretend to drink ceremonial sake.

I will not share my father’s fate.

Yoshitaro’s musing was interrupted by O-Sada, who entered with a tray of sake and two cups. She bowed and smiled sympa-thetically before pouring a cup for him.

“You have had a most arduous day. I hope you will be able to relax now. Perhaps a hot bath will help.”

Yoshitaro nodded and looked at the beautiful, intelligent face of the woman he had grown to love. He rose and followed O-Sada’s swaying figure down to the steaming bath.

Several days later, as Yoshi sat at his desk in the office, Kinnosuke turned to him.

“Master, we need the seal to affix to this document,” he said as he put the finishing touches on the paper.

“I’ll get it. I think Mother has it.” Yoshi walked to the storeroom where Rie was working.

“Mother, we need the seal in the office for the document Kinno is working on.”

“Yes, Yoshi, I’m coming. I will affix it.”

Yoshi frowned as they walked to the office. “But I’m house head now. I need the seal for official business.”

“I have made final decisions since my father died, and I will continue to do so.”

“But. . . .” Yoshi shook his head and clenched his hands. “This is the way it is, Yoshi.”

“Come in, O-Natsu. Join me in a cup of tea?” Rie called when she heard O-Natsu’s voice beyond the shoji.

O-Natsu bowed as she entered, smiled, and seated herself opposite Rie. She poured for Rie, then for herself. It had been a year of many changes, least of which was the one Rie’d seen in Yoshi since his father’s death. The seal had been a sore point, and he had not failed to let her know it each time a document needed to be signed. She had tolerated his anger, even understood it, but for the sake of the house, she knew she must maintain control. Yoshi didn’t have the business acumen necessary to run an operation the size of theirs, and until he did, she could not trust him with it.

“You know, O-Natsu,” Rie said, “we two are the only ones who have been in the house this long. Over forty years.”

O-Natsu laughed. “Yes, that’s so, isn’t it?”

“And now that the year of mourning is approaching the end, I want to see Yoshi married as soon as possible. It is unfortunate

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that it had to be postponed so long, all the marriages.” She took her folding fan from her obi and fanned herself slowly.

O-Natsu smiled again. “It will be good to have some activity in the house again. The year has been quiet, hasn’t it? Of course we all needed time to mourn the master.”

For several minutes the only sound to break the silence between them was the sipping of tea. Conversation was unnecessary to their companionship. Especially false conversation.

At length O-Natsu set her cup down and broke the silence. “Yes, didn’t you have some discussion with Mrs. Nakano about the girls as well before the master passed away?”

“Oh, yes, she has them in mind. There will be offers, I am sure, soon after Yoshi’s wedding, no doubt.” Rie looked at her cup thoughtfully. “Then there will be Fumi, then Kazu and Teru. And of course, finally Sei.”

Rie pulled a delicate long-stemmed pipe from her sleeve, filled it from a small pouch in her obi, and lit it, a prerogative of her age and status. Tobacco had entered the country through the Dutch enclave on Deshima Island, and smoking small pipes had caught on with older women as well as men.

O-Natsu, as though sensing Rie’s relaxed mood, also took out her pipe.

Rie nodded. After three short puffs she turned her pipe over on a small raku ware ashtray. “It’s important that Yoshi’s wife be from a good brewing house.” She smiled and nodded.

O-Natsu also tapped her pipe and set it on the ashtray. “I know you have special plans for Fumi and Sei.”

“I don’t want to overwhelm her with too many marriage arrangements all at once. But I have a plan for Fumi. Sei too. Actually I have something special in mind for Teru as well.”

O-Natsu refilled her pipe, then waited for Rie to speak.

“I’ll ask Mrs. Nakano to contact the Tamiyas and set the date for the wedding for two weeks after the end of the year of mourn—

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ing. No need to postpone it longer.” She paused to pour tea for O-Natsu and herself. “I’m going to let Yoshi and Tama have the upstairs room. My parents did that for me when I was married, remember? I’ll be glad to be back in my old room, close to the garden. It’s the first thing I see when I get up in the morning.”

“I know,” O-Natsu nodded. “Well, I imagine the Tamiyas will be glad to see the wedding over too. The delay can’t have been comfortable for them either.”

The wedding day was fixed after consulting the calendar, avoiding the unlucky days and selecting one of the most auspicious.

“I’ve always felt April was the best month for a wedding, especially for a brewing house, at the end of the season. We can turn our whole attention to the occasion,” Rie said to her children gathered for an early breakfast on the appointed day. “The cherry blossoms have just come out. Very auspicious for a wedding. Let’s all get dressed now. Girls, help each other with your obis.”

“I never can get mine right, Mother,” said Fumi.

“Kazu will help you. Just be glad you’re not the bride, Fumi. It will take two hours to get her dressed,” Rie said, patting Fumi on the back.

Fumi wrinkled her nose and walked with an exaggerated swaying after her sisters.

Rickshas were lined up at the main gate waiting to take the family to the Shinto shrine.

Rie stood with O-Natsu as the children emerged for the ride to the shrine. Yoshitaro came first, walking stiffly in his formal black kimono.

“Doesn’t he look distinguished!” O-Natsu said loudly enough for the ricksha pullers to hear.

Yoshitaro stepped up into the first ricksha with Rie, who was dressed in the formal black worn by wives and widows alike. To Rie’s disappointment, he carefully avoided her eyes. She knew in the long run that this was the right thing and he would thank her

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