‘Nope,’ muttered Mr Yanagi, as he sprawled against the seat. ‘Those hammer heads had never been pierced before. They were old, but like new. The previous tuner was not the type who’d pierce them.’

‘What?’

Opinion is divided among tuners on the matter of whether or not to pierce the hammers. With brand-new hammers that are a little tinny in sound, piercing them gives a soft and richer tone. But if you don’t pierce them in exactly the right spot it makes them deteriorate more quickly. It’s both a time-consuming and risky business, so many tuners choose never to pierce the hammers.

‘Then why did you pierce those hammers so much?’

‘Because I knew that would produce a good tone.’

I glanced at him in surprise, but he went on casually, eyes closed. ‘It was a shame to let that piano rot away. It needs to be played.’

‘But doesn’t that mean you ended up producing something different from how it originally sounded?’

‘If you compare the preferred tone from those days and now, they would be different, I expect.’

But the client had chosen to get it back to its original condition.

‘The idea of original sound is the issue. Isn’t it more important that a person’s memories are evoked, rather than the exact same effect created? The happy memories of when her daughter was little and played that piano.’

I remained a little confused.

‘What that lady really wants is not a faithful reproduction of the way that piano sounded, but rather to bring back her memories. Either way, the original sound doesn’t exist any longer. So I decided it was best to bring out the tunefulness which that particular piano was originally designed to create. If a sweet sound floats into the air, then the memories will follow.’

I didn’t know what to say, had no idea if that had been the right decision. What would I have done in his place? I would probably have kept strictly to what I’d been told to do and tried to recapture the original sound. But it struck me then that valuing that goal above all else might mean missing the opportunity to create a richer, fuller tone. The thought alone was painful to me.

And that’s the crux of it: it’s very limiting and stressful to work solely within the scope of what the client thinks they are after. The true pleasures of working as a tuner lie beyond that, beyond the simple embodiment of the client’s own mental conception of how the piano should sound.

‘Those were wonderful hammers,’ said Mr Yanagi, waking up now with a yawn and appearing more cheerful.

‘I thought so too. They should have been harder, but they still had that feel of wool to them.’