The Scent of Sake (54 page)

Rie beamed and nodded. All her plans were falling into place. Why then did she have a touch of melancholy? “And he was so skillful and quick to catch that Yamaguchi thief. Yamaguchi will suffer for it. He won’t have thought of buying steamships.”

“Yes. I think Buntaro is already planning his Tokyo trip,” Tama

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said. “One of the ships is docked at Yokohama. The other is here in Kobe. He said he wants to go to Tokyo by ship and buy the other there.”

“Ah!”
Rie sighed, feeling her age. “If I were younger I would like to make the trip too. Imagine going to Edo . . . Tokyo, by a steamship! I was going to say maybe you could go, Tama, but we need you here, to settle the matter of Hiro finally. I’m going to talk with him tomorrow. Of course you are more than capable of acting as house head, Tama. But we’re over the time limit now, and the officials are asking embarrassing questions, you know.”

Tama poured tea for her mother-in-law and sister-in-law.

The following day Hirokichi, whom Rie had summoned to the main house, approached the door to the parlor where Rie waited for him. He bowed stiffly.

“Good afternoon, Grandmother,” he said in a deep, resonant voice.

“Hiro, come and sit by the Butsudan with me,” Rie said. She patted a zabuton next to her.

“You know, Hiro,” she said looking directly at him, “I selected you to succeed your uncle soon after you were born. And when you were younger you justified my choice. But in recent years you have changed. Your commitment to the house is flawed, Hiro. Think about what this means for your life, your future.” She paused and leaned forward intently. “Do you understand?”

Hirokichi bowed, his somber expression unwavering. “I will think about it, Grandmother.”

“You have had ample time to think about it, Hiro,” she said sharply. “I want you to understand the consequences of your continued refusal. We can brook no further delay.” She looked at his still bowed head.

He nodded.

“I want to see you again one week from today, Hiro. I expect you to decide to accept your responsibility by then.”

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One week later Hirokichi appeared at the parlor door at the same hour of the afternoon. He bowed and entered. She prayed that he’d had a change of heart. If not, she would have to play her hidden card.

“Come, Hiro,” Rie said. “Sit. Have you decided?” She looked at him intently.

Hirokichi bowed when he was seated. “I will find a bride, Grandmother.”

“One the house can accept?” Rie took out her fan and toyed with it.

“I believe so,” he said. “In fact, I have found her.”

“Really?” Rie’s voice rose. “You mean you have found a bride by yourself, without our go-between? What are you talking about? No such thing!” She opened her fan and fanned rapidly.

“Yes, Grandmother. I have found her.”

Rie noted a slight smile on her grandson’s face and felt a rising anger that her grandson could be so smug.

“But you cannot select your own bride. Remember, the condition was that you marry a bride of our choice. Before I ask who she is, are you certain she will be suitable, acceptable to the main house?”

“Quite certain, yes.” He bowed. “And who might she be, then?”

“Naoko Fujiwara.” Hirokichi raised his head and smiled broadly.

Rie put her fan over her mouth to stifle a gasp. “What? A girl from the Kyoto nobility? Where did you get such an idea, Hiro?” She leaned forward. “Have you met her? What makes you think her family would allow her to marry a brewer?” Rie dropped her fan and leaned forward, her hands pressed against the tatami.

“I was introduced to her at a Kabuki performance a few months ago, Grandmother. She is third daughter in her house. I believe she wishes to marry me and that her father will allow it.”

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“What makes you so certain that she would or could marry you, Hiro?” Rie picked up her fan, her hands resting on the table.

“I am confident about it, Grandmother. I have seen her several times at Bunraku, and we have had some opportunity to talk. She has already spoken with her father. I met him also at a Bunraku performance.”

“
Humph!
Too much confidence is as unattractive as too little, Hiro. Well, if her house agrees, it will be the first time a brewer has ever married a bride from the nobility.” Rie pursed her lips and looked critically at her grandson.

“Well, isn’t that what you have always taught us, Grandmother?

That White Tiger should be first in everything?”

Rie quickly picked up her fan, brought it to her face and burst into a peal of laughter. Here, after all, was a grandson fit to succeed to the headship of the house and to honor her father’s memory.

“All right, Hiro. If in fact her parents agree, you have my blessing. Yes, I think it will be a master stroke, a good beginning for you as successor.” She smiled. “Tama has had the position for five, nearly six years, twice as long as generally permitted. Now we can go ahead with the formal arrangements for the wedding and your succession as well. Of course her family will be responsible for the wedding arrangements.” Rie put a hand to her hair. “Won’t Mrs. Nakano be surprised, for we should give her the honor of sitting as go-between after all she has done for us. All of Nada will take notice.” Rie straightened and smiled at her grandson. “And here, Hiro.” She reached into her obi and handed the house seal to Hiro. She thought of Yoshi, the fight they’d had over this very seal, and felt a flash of regret. It was a bittersweet moment. One she would not soon forget.

The wedding reception of Hirokichi and his Fujiwara bride was a glittering event that astounded all of Kansai. The wedding was not only the event of the year; it also marked the investiture of Hirokichi as Kinzaemon XIII. The bride’s Kyoto family and friends, exquisitely attired and impeccably mannered, nearly filled the reception hall, with less room for the Omuras and other brewers. Everyone knew the Kyoto nobility had more status than wealth, and that the Omura House was one of Japan’s wealthiest brewing families. The marriage was a mutually advantageous union, such as had been happening between families of the samurai and merchant classes. But this was a first, a union between a brewing family and a family of the old nobility. Rie felt awed that her house was now allied in marriage with the ancient Fujiwara house, and yet at the same time, she couldn’t help but feel that an era was ending and a new one beginning. She saw in both Naoko, the bride, and the bride’s mother, a hint of her own

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mother’s aristocratic features and distinctive nose. If only her parents had lived to see this day.

The entire house and especially the upstairs room was cleaned and readied for the bridal couple. Rie hoped Naoko would learn to feel at home with the customs of the Omura House, but she left to Tama the instructing of the bride. That Naoko’s family did not brew was overshadowed for Rie by the anticipation that Naoko’s aristocratic Fujiwara blood would benefit the house. Hirokichi by his marriage could gain access to exclusive levels of society about which Rie had only the vaguest knowledge. And although it brought her pride, it also brought home the fact that life would soon be different. Times were changing, customs were changing, and shortly, an era would be ending, the mantle passed to a new generation, one with nobility running through its veins. The geisha’s bloodline banished from the house at last. Still, she did not wish her grandson to feel inferior to his noble bride.

“Don’t forget, Hiro,” Rie told him a few days before the wedding, her head held proudly, “sake brewing is as ancient as the nobility, perhaps even older. In every town and village sake brewers are the most respected people. We have always been the produc-ers, we merchants. The samurai were parasites, and the nobility also lived on what the merchants produced. They still do.”

After the wedding, while Hirokichi fell comfortably into the work of the main house with Buntaro, Rie saw that Naoko felt awkward, thrust suddenly into a working family. Rie was certain that Tama would treat Naoko with fairness, even compassion, but the responsibility of instructing Naoko was a daunting one.

“I wonder if she will ever be able to do the work we have done, Tama?” Rie lamented as the two women sat drinking tea one evening in Rie’s room.

Tama raised her eyebrows. “I don’t know, Mother. Her back-ground is so different, and she is not accustomed to hard work.

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She has been trained in the polite arts. She does very well with ikebana, and I have seen some of her fine needlework. And you know she has brought her koto with her.”

“That won’t go very far in the brewery, will it?” Rie said sharply, then softened her tone. “Well, it’s a good thing that all the women in the house know what to do without being told by Naoko. I doubt that the house will suffer, at least while we are alive. I wonder in what new direction Hiro and his bride may take White Tiger?” She paused and took out her small pipe, once again feeling the winds of change stirring.

Rie hated to admit that she was feeling her age, her legs and knees less agile, her vision losing clarity. She worked consciously to keep her back straight, not bent from years of bending and bowing as with other women her age. She went to the office less often now, but expected Tama and Hirokichi to come to her to report on problems and decisions, whether important or minor matters. She felt comfortable with having given the seal to Hiro, but a sense of loss, too. It meant her own road would soon be coming to an end.

One morning Tama came to Rie’s room before noon and called at the door, “Mother, may I come in?”

“Of course, Tama.” She looked at her daughter-in-law, now graying at the temples, her plain face somehow a reminder of her faithfulness.

“There’s good news, Mother,” Tama said brightly. “Is that so?”

“Buntaro is back from Tokyo. He says the war with China is over. He and Hiro think the time has come to sell the two ships we chartered to the government.”

“Good, Tama. Yes, I’m glad both Buntaro and Hiro know about timing, and you too. Yes,” Rie said, and reached for Tama’s hand to help her rise. “I’ll go to the office with you. I want to see about the price.”