Japanese Tea Ceremony (1960)

M/Ss and C/Us of a young woman, Kasuko Ohki, in traditional Japanese costume of kimono, performing a Japanese dance with two paper fans at the finishing school she attends in Sevenoaks, Kent. Other pupils are sitting watching in rather formal clothes as she dances on a bamboo mat floor with a Japanese screen behind.

M/S of Kasuko and another girl in Japanese costume, Kawther Hamdi from Bagdad / Baghdad, kneeling on mats on the floor as Mrs Orr-Ewing, who runs the school enters, also in traditional costume; commentator tells us she "spent seven years in Japan, and is able to demonstrate to Miss Ohki and her other pupils, the 700 year old traditional tea ceremony" or 'Cha-No-Yu' as it's called.

As she kneels down, the two girls bow to her, then M/Ss and C/Us as Mrs O-E folds a red cloth and cleans the tea-scoop slowly and deliberately and spoons the tea into a small bowl. Then she takes some water from a large jug with a ladle, puts it into a brass pot, then takes water from the pot and puts that into the bowl.

High angle M/S as she picks up a small bamboo whisk; C/U as she whisks the liquid. M/S as she takes the finished tea in the bowl and places it with great ceremony before Kasuko; they bow to each other. Kasuko drinks from the bowl. C/U of some Japanese biscuits on a plate; they look like small cakes of soap in lavender, green and lemon colours; a hand comes into shot and breaks one of them in half; C/U of Kawther eating it.

M/S of the spectators watching; M/S of the three women bowing as the audience give them a round of applause.

Note: notes on Mrs Orr-Ewing on file say that she is a councillor of The Japan Society and is thought to be the only non-Japanese woman to hold the Tea Ceremony Certificate from Japan.
FILM ID:105.3