Just as spring slips and summer arrives in Japan, before the mosquitoes swarm and the thick humidity hits in earnest, ume leads the charge into the new season. Ume, Japanese plums, are just as much a part of Japanese art and life as sakura, cherry blossoms. The trees bloom earlier, at the end of winter and as spring just begins, making them the real harbinger of spring—especially as branches get filled in with leaves, and then the small, green fruit. Don’t be wooed into tasting the raw ume; the fruit is tart, bitter, and stoney, and more importantly contains amygdalin, which breaks down into hydrogen cyanide. Even a tiny taste may result in a stomachache; any more may be lethal. It is far better to transform the bitterness into something life-giving and delicious. And so as soon as the ume are ready, the ume shigoto (shee-goh-toh), or “ume work,” begins. …