First, he was amazingly fast, faster than anyone else I’d ever seen. A process that would normally take just under two hours he finished in half the time, and he made it look so easy. No wasted work, everything carried out with perfect precision. The tuning was over before I knew it, and there he was already replacing the front panel, and polishing up the keyboard and mahogany top board with a cloth. He returned a Beyer practice book to its place on the piano and called out to the owner, who was in a back room. The way he spoke to the lady of the house was so kind it was hard to believe he was the same stern Mr Akino I knew. They settled on an approximate date one year later for the next tuning.

He made his way out of the house, all smiles, but as soon as we were outside he reverted to the old grumpy Mr Akino I knew. We walked together to where we’d parked a little way off.

‘That wasn’t particularly interesting, was it?’ he asked.

‘Oh, it was,’ I said. ‘I found it really interesting.’

‘Really? Not me.’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘No, you don’t understand,’ Mr Akino said, waving his hand to emphasize the point. ‘I finished pretty swiftly, didn’t I. I don’t have to pull out all the stops in that household. Did you notice – a primary-school kid in the family using Beyer practice books?’

I’d noticed the practice book. That wasn’t so unusual – primary-school pupils often used Beyer books in the early stages. Did he mean he was bored by the humdrum nature of the job?

‘The height of the stool was a giveaway, wasn’t it? The child in that family is in the upper years of primary school but still using a simple Beyer primer. Not exactly a kid who’s crazy about the piano.’

‘I guess so,’ I said, although it didn’t feel right to me. Just because the pianist wasn’t that enthusiastic, it didn’t mean it was OK to do a half-hearted job of tuning. And I liked Beyer as a composer, with his straightforward gentle melodies.

‘I’ll tell you one thing – I don’t finish quickly because I am sloppy. I can handle a simple tuning in thirty minutes.’

I’d seen it with my own eyes so I knew it was true – Mr Akino’s tuning was backed up by experience and technique, and he had a deft touch.

‘I remember, Tomura, how you once said you couldn’t quite swallow the idea of adjusting the tuning according to the client, right?’

He remembered. That was surprising. It’s true I did think that, but I didn’t recall ever saying it aloud. I never would have expected Mr Akino to give my reaction any thought.