ABSTRACT
Masami Kawashima is having his lunch at a table draped in crisp white linen at the Hourin Country Club outside Tokyo. Coming in from the eighteen-hole golf course which is the club’s main attraction, he has passed by the club shop which offers a 14-karat gold cigarette lighter for $4,200, gold-edged Hourin dinner plates for $1,700 each, and a Hourin lamp at $6,600. He sits there, in the dining room, in a marshmallow-soft leather chair, flavouring his meal with a dash of salt from the sterling silver shaker on the sterling silver tray, next to the fresh flowers in cut glass.
