Zen Attitude Read Online Free PDF Page A

genuine, disingenuous item.
    When Mr. Ishida arrived at nine o’clock, he announced that before we looked at anything, we would drink tea. “I have brought a bag of the highest-grade ocha from Kyoto. It is especially good for the nerves,” he said, handing me a package wrapped exquisitely in dark green paper, a color symbolic of a gift from the heart.
    One good thing about my seventy-four-year-old friend was his talent with tea. Another was the fact that I was too awed by him to break down the way I had with Hugh. My voice remained level as we sipped the mild green tea together and I replayed my shopping nightmare.
    “So this Sakai person never actually said this was an Edo-period tansu ?” Mr. Ishida’s face, crosshatched with many lines, looked skeptical by nature.
    “No, he didn’t. And when I noticed the drawers were sanded, he swore he hadn’t worked on them himself.”
    “Interesting.” Mr. Ishida stroked his chin.
    “Let me show you what I mean.” I was itching to get his opinion.
    “You hurry too much, and I am slightly tired from my early morning tai chi practice. Permit me to enjoy my tea, please.”
    Twenty minutes later Mr. Ishida said he was ready to view the tansu. He surveyed it from all angles, bending his child-sized frame in half as he removed the drawers and then inspected the empty case. Using my kuginuki , he removed the rest of the metalwork in half the time it would have taken me. Then he put it back on. In the end, he settled himself comfortably on a cushion on the living room floor and gave me his appraisal.
    “As you’d thought, the metalwork is genuine Edo, most certainly from the town of Yahata. The lacquer finish of the wood, and the shape of the shadow left by the earlier lock plates, lead me to think the tansu might have been built later in the town of Ogi, which is also on Sado Island.”
    “Ogi craftsmen didn’t build chests until the Meiji period,” I said.
    “Very good, Shimura-san. And I conclude your chest is from the late Meiji period, maybe ninety years old. It’s in good condition for its age, but I must remind you to fumigate it for fear of insects within.”
    “What should I tell Mrs. Mihori?” I wanted a solution before we talked about such boring things as fumigation.
    “Not saying is the flower.” At my blank look, he added, “This is an old proverb that means some things are better left unsaid.”
    “You mean I should just lie about it?”
    “Listen! Your customer has expressed gratitude to you already for two weeks of hard work. She would not feel comfortable rejecting the piece now. Therefore, I do not think you should make a declaration of the problem.”
    “It’s my duty to tell her it’s not Edo period.”
    “You said she is a high-class lady? No matter how disparagingly you speak about the tansu , she will feel obligated to buy it. Even if you tell her it is a bad piece of furniture, she will insist on taking it. However, she will never display it in her home, and the rumor will circulate that you cheated her.”
    I put my head in my hands. The picture he was painting was worse than anything I had imagined.
    “You must tell her the tansu did not arrive. Or perhaps your apartment suffered a terrible burglary!”
    I shook my head. “At Roppongi Hills? This is the best apartment building in the neighborhood. No one would believe it.”
    Mr. Ishida’s face brightened. “If you give me a spare key, perhaps I can arrange a burglary for you. There’s a very kind yakuza boss in my neighborhood I could ask to help. He will take only what we request.”
    “Please don’t, Ishida-san!” I hated the way many Japanese regarded the Mafia as solid citizens. Even if they sponsored community parades and delivered food to earthquake victims, gangsters were still gangsters. I’d learned this the hard way.
    “It was only a suggestion,” he soothed. “What would you prefer to do?”
    “I’ll go to Hita and try to return the tansu. Maybe your appraisal