The Scent of Sake
The SCENT
of
SAKE
oyce Lebra
To those who preserve the tradition.
When Amaterasu came forth [from the dark cave] the Plain of High Heaven in the
Central Land of the Reed Plains
. . . became light.
the
Kojiki
Contents Epigraph | iii |
The Characters | xi |
Chapter 1 It was a day Rie would never forget, the day… | 1 |
Chapter 2 Rie’s wedding, her father told her, would be remembered in… | 11 |
Chapter 3 As soon as her eyes opened, Rie extricated herself from… | 20 |
Chapter 4 Gloom pervaded the house following the loss of Rie’s baby | 32 |
Chapter 5 Several seasons had passed, and Rie had yet to become… | 42 |
Chapter 6 Rie’s mother supervised preparations for the arrival of the infant,… | 52 |
Chapter 7 The morning after the baby’s arrival Rie rose even earlier… | 56 |
Chapter 8 Rie still relished the memory of the outing with Sunao… | 65 |
Chapter 9 Rie opened the wooden shutters and looked out at the… | 76 |
Chapter 10 With the death of Hana, the atmosphere and relationships in… | 83 |
Chapter 11
Rie awoke early. She sat up abruptly as she realized… 88
Chapter 12
Rie alighted from the ricksha beyond the house, so as… 96
Chapter 13
The construction on the storeroom and number one kura
went… 104
Chapter 14
Rie awoke the next morning still angry about this new… 109
Chapter 15
The memory of the night Masami became her lover O-Toki… 115
Chapter 16
The day after Jihei’s visit to O-Yumi, he was sent… 121
Chapter 17
For the next two years, Rie and Jihei called an… 127
Chapter 18
Eighteen thirty-seven was an eventful year in the Omura Household 134
Chapter 19
Kinzaemon’s retirement in the spring of 1841 was a major… 140
Chapter 20
“Can you believe it, Father?” Rie asked as she sat… 147
Chapter 21
After the chance meeting with Saburo and his wife, and… 155
Chapter 22
Rie walked to the courtyard one morning and looked at… 164
Chapter 23
“Yoshi, you’re nineteen now,” Jihei said to his son one… 173
Chapter 24
One morning Rie walked out to the garden for a… 182
Chapter 25
Rie reeled from the news that had just now reached… 192
Chapter 26
Rie came to breakfast with her children the next morning 196
Chapter 27
“Come in, O-Natsu. Join me in a cup of tea?”… 203
Chapter 28
“I have no intention of allowing any of the girls… 213
Chapter 29
“Only two weeks until Teru’s marriage. It will be a… 224
Chapter 30
Two or three months had elapsed since Teru’s death, and… 230
Chapter 31
Seisaburo’s marriage to Mari Yamada of the East Nada
brewing… 241
Chapter 32
“Oku-san,” Kinnosuke said to Rie one morning, “Seisaburo
has something… 248
Chapter 33
One evening in 1863 the shoji to the office opened… 259
Chapter 34
“Yoshi, come on,” Rie said as he hobbled slowly toward… 265
Chapter 35
Rie opened the shoji and walked into the inner office… 274
Chapter 36
As Rie walked toward the kitchen one morning she heard… 284
Chapter 37
A few days later Rie caught Yoshitaro alone at the… 295
Chapter 38
Several years had elapsed since White Tiger organized
the first… 305
Chapter 39
Rie opened the shutters of her upstairs room early one… 312
Chapter 40
Two years had elapsed since Rie first broached the subject… 320
Chapter 41
Ume was married to the Kuniyoshi son as Rie wished,… 328
Chapter 42
Three months after Rie’s conversation with Fumi a
worse crisis… 335
Chapter 43
Buntaro hurried to Kobe port soon after Rie and Tama… 343
Chapter 44
The wedding reception of Hirokichi and his Fujiwara
bride was… 349
Chapter 45
Rie and Tama could still see workmen coming and going,… 357
Acknowledgments
365
About the Author
Credits Cover Copyright
About the Publisher
Kinzaemon IX Hana, his wife
Rie, their daughter Jihei, Rie’s mukoyoshi
Fumi, Rie’s daughter by Saburo Kato Seisaburo, Rie and Jihei’s son
O-Toki, Jihei’s favorite geisha, mother of Yoshitaro Yoshitaro, Jihei’s son of O-Toki
Tama, Yoshitaro’s wife
Teru, Jihei’s daughter of O-Toki Kazu, Jihei’s daughter of O-Yumi Eitaro, Fumi’s mukoyoshi
O-Sada, Yoshitaro’s geisha
Ume, daughter of Yoshitaro and O-Sada Hirokichi, son of Fumi and Eitaro
Mie, daughter of Fumi and Eitaro Mari, Seisaburo’s wife
O-Haru, Sawaraya proprietress Masami, O-Toki’s lover
Goro, son of O-Toki and Masami Nobuo, son of Seisaburo and Mari Masako, daughter of Seisaburo and Mari Naoko, Hirokichi’s wife
Hana, daughter of Hirokichi and Naoko
x i i
Toji, brewmaster
Kin, banto, chief clerk
The Characters
Shin’ichi, Kinnosuke, his successor Nobu, wife of Kinnosuke
O-Natsu, faithful family servant O-Yuki, maid
Mrs. Nakano, marriage go-between Hirano, Seisaburo’s banto
Buntaro, Hirano’s son, Kinnosuke’s successor Yamaguchi, competing brewer
Yusuke, his banto
It was a day Rie would never forget, the day her mother told her who her husband would be. That day she had knelt in the frigid courtyard scrubbing the wooden sake barrels, barrels so large they had to be lifted by ropes and pulleys. She gripped the big brush in both hands and scrubbed back and forth, back and forth until her muscles ached. She rubbed her blue-cold hands together and held them over her nose and mouth. Then she scratched under the cotton scarf that held back her long thick hair and shifted on the rush mat on which she was kneeling. As she did so, she glanced through the misty screen of her breath at the door of the brewery and inhaled the pungent, mildewy smell of yeast, the smell that permeated every corner of the drafty old wooden house and brewery buildings. Women were never to enter the forbidden door that gaped darkly before her.
“Let a woman enter the brewery and the sake will sour,” the old ones always said. Her mother had warned her of this since childhood. But Rie relished the yeasty smell of brewing sake that
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