He had rarely invited Mr. Itakura to drink with him, and probably just wanted someone to drink with. As the Master drank, he became even more morose and started droning on about all his troubles.
‘We’ve tried absolutely everything. The shop floor manager and company president were desperate, you know. We developed springs made from both bamboo and celluloid, and used paper to imitate the feel of tinplate. We even collected sawdust from a local carpentry workshop and came up with ways we could convert it into a solid to use for something. I put everything into getting hold of what little metal we could, and had to do all kinds of things in the process. Well, there are some things I really can’t talk about in front of my wife and child.’
Mr. Itakura tried to refuse any more sake, but the M
