December 1, 2014
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Massan Plot Summary - Week 10
#55 Today we enter an opening scene of happiness and bliss as Ellie helps Massan into his new suit for his first day of work. He shows Ellie pictures of a site in Hokkaido, the most northern of Japan's four main islands. Doesn't it remind you of Scotland? There is luscious water, and the climate and humidity are perfect. There is even great peat there! Massan tells Ellie that he wants to give her a present for all that she has gone through. What does she want? A sewing machine? Gas in the kitchen? Well, not exactly, Ellie hems, haws and tells him to guess. Hey, when talking to a man on his way out the door for his first day at a new job you have to get to the point! Massan has no time for games and leaves in the middle of the conversation, much to Ellie's consternation. Cut to Kamoi's office. Massan proposes Hokkaido as a site for the new distillery, but Kamoi says that Hokkaido is too far away from Osaka and that it will be too costly to ship the products. Can he find somewhere closer to home? Massan also tells Kamoi that he knows someone from Hiroshima who would be a great help. Is he talking about Toshio? Massan is not only not going to run the family business, but he is also going to head hunt the top man? That doesn't seem so cute to me. Cut back to the home front. Katherine the Great decides that Ellie should have a gas kitchen and even a gaslight chandelier in the living room to shine over a sofa that remains to be purchased. The neighbors even know a carpenter and will call him in to start the renovations. Who needs to consult Massan about anything? Are we getting an inkling as to why Katherine's husband is staying away in England for so long?
#56 Today's installment begins with Ellie dreaming of gas. Kamoi is not keen on locating the distillery in Kyoto, and is looking for somewhere closer to Osaka, like Yamazaki. The water is great there, and they can have peat sent in from Hokkaido. Massan is in total unpleasant work mode, but Ellie can't "read the air" and starts the guessing games again. What about my present? Talk about poor timing. Seriously, get this woman a copy of Venus and Mars! Massan has no ears at the moment. Well, can we remodel? Do whatever you want, says Massan. Ellie gets a mad on. Massan goes to work and Ellie goes to the Only Restaurant to discuss remodeling plans with the carpenter (and Katherine) for a modern, gorgeous Western style home. Who cares what Massan thinks? (Um, has anyone bothered to pay the rent?) Later that night, Ellie is sings about gas coming and waits on Massan for supper. Massan is drowning his frustration at the Only Restaurant and now it his turn to sing his drunken way home to an uneaten dinner and an unamused Ellie. Oh please, just get over it and spare us another session of unpleasantness. Tomorrow we will probably have Ellie learning from the carpenter about how well Japanese architecture goes with the Japanese climate. Gotta fill out the plot somehow.
#57 Ellie's architecture lesson continues as the local carpenter lectures her about the wonders of Japanese houses, and how they are perfectly suited to the location and climate. How much do you want to bet that after her lectures that Ellie will scrap her plans for remodeling and create another dead end subplot? Cut to Kamoi's offices where a riot is taking place outside. He is hiring workers for the new brewery and everyone is pushing at the door for an interview. Kamoi decides to interview three candidates at once to save time. He doesn't let Massan get a word in edgewise and decides to hire three fellows, a good whistler, a fellow who can calculate figures in his head and an arm wrestler who cheats. None of them has any experience whatsoever, but since Massan already has the knowledge and experience, Kamoi says they don't need it. Massan then shows Kamoi a model of the distillery buildings which Kamoi proceeds to rearrange, probably according to Feng Sui or something. Massan finds one bright spot in that his pot still has been finished by the metal craft man who kept his diagrams and executed them to perfection. Instead of going home where Ellie is waiting to crow the praises of Japanese architecture, Massan again finds himself at the Only Restaurant in Town drinking and complaining that Kamoi overturns all of his ideas. Enter Ellie (How on earth did she know where to find him?) who chides Massan for not coming home when she wants to share her amazing discoveries. Massan tries to quiet her down since this is neither the time nor the place, and Ellie in a great display of logic orders her own drinks and proceeds to get revenge plastered. The next morning this woman is not even hung over as she shakes Massan awake to go for a walk at the crack of dawn.
#58 Ellie wakes Massan up at the crack of dawn to go out for a walk and a talk. Massan just groans about his hangover and says there is no reason to get up since he is not going to Yamasaki to look over the new brewery site with the rest of the fellows from the office. Kamoi has been checking out the lay of the land at the Yamasaki site, and rearranges the models of the buildings accordingly. For Massan, it's Hokkaido or nothing. Ellie, who is now an expert on Japanese architecture tells Massan that houses are all built to coexist with the nature and climate of each respective area. Can't Massan think of making whiskey in the same way, and adjust it to the conditions in Yamasaki? Massan gets inspired and they go to Yamasaki after all. They finally get to discuss the present Massan promised Ellie. She tells him she wants a baby.
#59 Massan decides that Yamasaki isn't so bad after all. The three rivers with differing temperatures that converge there are perfect for generating the mist and humidity required to make whiskey. Massan apologizes to Kamoi, who seems to have thought of everything. But Kamoi says that the major reason that he chose Yamasaki was its proximity to a railroad line, perfect for easy transport of the factory's products. Kamoi rearranged the buildings in consideration of the factory's appearance from the train line. Whiskey is not yet well known in Japan and an attractive setting will be a fantastic free advertisement. Kamoi wants to have the factory accessible for public tours to further increase interest. Sounds good to Massan and he spends a few more days checking out Yamasaki. Meanwhile Ellie supervises the remodeling. She has gotten permission from the landlord, but with the possibility of moving to Yamasaki in the future... Anyway, there is now gas in the kitchen, a chandelier and a sewing machine. Ellie has also remodeled her hairstyle from braids wound around her head to a more mature rolled-up-in-the-back hairdo a la Empress Michiko. Meanwhile again, there seems to be communication going on between Kamoi and Hiroshima, as who appears on Massan's doorstep but Toshio, the Hiroshima family brewery's top man.
#60 The Hiroshima family brewery's top man, Toshio, suddenly appears on Massan's doorstep saying that he was sent by Massan's father in a response to a letter from Ellie. He didn't want to come, as he abhors the idea of making or even drinking whiskey. His heart belongs to sake. If Massan didn't know anything about it, then he will catch the first train back to Hiroshima! Wait, says Ellie, at least stay for dinner. Toshio seems fascinated by the gas in the kitchen, and stays the night. The next day Massan drags him to meet Kamoi, who takes an instant liking to Toshio's difficult personality. Toshio returns to Hiroshima to think things over. As he leaves he gets a hug from Ellie and is so filled with flustered joy that he has to accidentally kick over a trash can on his way down the street to the station. (Dumb slapstick) Massan is about to give Ellie a romantic kiss, but Katherine and the neighbors barge in to demand a cuppa in thanks for their rubbernecking supervision of the house renovation. The story is finally getting somewhere as we fast forward to 1924 and the installation of the pot still in the new Yamasaki brewery. Ellie comes in and says, "Massan, you did it!" She also tells him that he did something else, too. She is pregnant. Maybe the neighbors finally left them in peace for 20 minutes or so.
A teaser for next week shows Massan making a cradle and Ellie collapsing, so I don't hold out much hope for a full term delivery. The real life Rita never had any children, but there were no miscarriages in the book that I read. This seems like kind of a cruel and unnecessary plot twist.
