‘I mean, this young man is an apprentice, isn’t he?’ he said. ‘Why send him? I make my living with the piano, you know, and I’ve always brought my custom to your company. Do you take me for a fool?’

Mr Kamijo had raised his voice, and I was now staring at a small hole in the floorboards.

‘Tomura is not an apprentice,’ Mr Yanagi responded firmly. ‘He is an official tuner in our company.’

‘But he isn’t any good,’ Mr Kamijo insisted.

‘He’s young, admittedly, but he knows what he’s doing.’

Mr Yanagi didn’t budge an inch, but still Mr Kamijo stood there, arms folded, shaking his head.

The retune came over a month after I’d originally tuned it. Mr Yanagi insisted that Mr Kamijo pay the set tuning fee on this occasion, too, even though he might never ask our company to tune his piano ever again.

Mr Yanagi and I walked back through the swirling snow to the car park.

‘I’m sure that a pianist would get the best sound if he had his own exclusive tuner to adjust his piano every day according to how he feels,’ I said.

I had the vague sense I was signposting something on the road ahead with this statement.

‘For concert halls, perhaps,’ Mr Yanagi said curtly. He was clearly in a bad mood. ‘I don’t think changing the tone according to your mood on a particular day is the way to go at all. The piano is simply not that sort of instrument.’

He might be right. There are limitations on how a pianist can determine the sound of his instrument. Each piano has its own individual personality. And so do pianists. The optimal sound comes through finding a balance between the two. All a tuner can ask is that a pianist trust in that collaboration between himself and his instrument.

‘Say, for example, there’s a really fabulous restaurant.’

Here we go again, I thought, bracing myself. Mr Yanagi and his metaphors. Most of which had to do with food.

‘It’d be so wonderful if they prepared the dishes on the menu according to your physical condition and how you felt that particular day. But if you trust that the restaurant is good, you’re not going to ask them to adjust the flavour to suit how you’re feeling from one day to the next. Would you agree, Tomura?’

‘You’re right, I wouldn’t.’

‘My point exactly. You go along with what’s on offer on that menu. The customer has to be confident that he’s about to enjoy a reliably delicious combination of dishes.’

I nodded silently – I knew exactly what he was getting at. But he was able to say this because he had such innate confidence in his own ability.

‘With restaurants, of course, they need you to enjoy the food from the very first bite.’

‘Right.’