EXTRACTS FROM SARAH HARRISON’S DIARY OF FILMING WITH WINDFALL FILMS IN JAPAN
Nagasaki. 11.4.1999
Filming of the Christian martyrs memorial
First day of the filming, starting with monument to the twenty-six martyrs. The adjacent church is truly bizarre, with two towers that look like pollarded tree trunks patterned with designs of no obvious significance in mosaic. Alan did his first speaking part here.
Noted on a sign board that the oldest stone bridge in Japan still surviving is near the civic centre and is called 'Spectacles Bridge', supposedly because it resembles spectacles with its two arches. It was built in 1634, two years before Deshima. Sadly we didn't have time to see it.
Deshima island and the Dutch traders
Most of the shoot was in Deshima, or what remains of it. They are reconstructing houses and warehouses that stood there at the latter part of its existence. What was striking was how small the fan of reclaimed land that was lived on was.
Only one bridge connected it with the mainland and that was guarded to prevent persons going in or out unless licensed, like prostitutes. Supposedly first class prostitutes were reserved for Japanese, second class for Chinese (who also had a trade settlement here) and third class for the Dutch.
Only about 15 foreigners were allowed to live on Deshima at any one time and bread was cooked especially for them, the only place in all Japan where it was cooked. For them only 15 or 20 loaves a day could be cooked. There was a superstition that if you ate bread you would turn into a Christian, so it was forbidden.
The reconstruction will take about twenty years as houses on land needed here still to be purchased, also the accurate reproduction in wood including cedar and bamboo is expensive and needs the time of skilled hand craftsmen.
The walls are a lattice of bamboo held together by rice straw rope, covered with earth. All the joints in the huge roof beams looked authentic. Two buildings are under construction, a merchant's house and a 'kura' (fire-proof store).
The historian connected to the museum and Alan were filmed walking through the house and later in a garden where a model of the island stands. I don't think Alan found this easy or very satisfactory as the man's English was not good so there was no real discussion.
The takes and retakes meant we had to rush to taxis and to the bus station, man-handling the great tin boxes of equipment between us. We just made it to the bus but at the air-port it looked as though we were not going to get seats as the flight had been overbooked. Carlo and our Japanese contact argued and cajoled and in the end successfully secured seats for us all.
Monday 12th April
Awoken at 6 a.m. by a tremendous noise which we thought at first was thunder, but it turned out to be the sound of mechanical diggers removing a small hill beside the hotel. this was all the more strange to us as three fields of prime land abutted the road beside the hotel and were newly sown with rice seedlings. Surely this makes no economic sense.
Paper making
We went to a museum of paper at Ito?? firstly, but hadn't been there long before Chako (the Japanese interpreter etc.) had a message that another man we'd arranged to see was just about to load his boiler with 'koozo' (paper mulberry) to soften it prior to beating.
This is done in a huge vat with a wood fire underneath. the water and additives, including caustic soda (?), is heated to boiling point before the 'koozo' is put in. Then it turns a rich ochre. It has to boil for three hours to soften satisfactorily.
We watched the man and his wife working on various further stages, beating with a mechanical devise rather like a foot mixer in action, pressing to exclude water. Watched actual paper making using two layers of paper, one dyed used as the first sheet, and the second white, filtered through a sieve with a stencil design or image so that the resulting piece of paper had a dark image on a white background.
The setting was perfect because of the rain. It underlined just how water intensive the process is. Sadly there is only one full-time paper maker in this village now. His family didn't want to be filmed. The couple we did film work every day except Monday in a Museum demonstrating paper making. They sell the sorts of things they make at home in the museum shop. He is the third generation paper maker but neither of his sons is prepared to do it. His elder son works for the prefecture, the younger sells car parts.
The death knell was the introduction of photo copiers which cannot use this sort of paper so it is only now used for decorative purposes aimed primarily at the tourist trade. He is now 66 and his wife about the same. Their family name is Tomoksa which is very common in this neighbourhood. His wife told Chako that women do over half the work. She will have to go out at 4 a.m. tomorrow morning to change the water the fibre is now rinsing in, for instance. She said that when their elder son decided not to follow his father, the younger son said quite bluntly that they were not to expect him to fill his brother's shoes.
We stayed in Suzurka (?) and ate at a traditional restaurant, seated on floor cushions. Had an interesting chat with David about the process of production. The film now shot will pass first through an editor who, with some ideas on the story line, will knit the film together. The producer will then adapt and change this, but the editor will generally have selected those portions of film which work.
Shikoku. Tuesday 13th April
Bamboo day
We went to the workshop of a Mr Yamagisha, Nr. Suzaka. He took us to one of two bamboo forests that he owns. The hillside was steep and very slippery after the rain. There he and another workman cut a couple of bamboos for the camera. I photographed the workman's knives. One was slightly hooked and was a traditional bamboo cutting knife. The other was engraved with a picture and signed Moriuki of Tosa - the knife maker. It was in fact a broken boar hunter's knife that had lost half its blade. The signature on the bamboo knife was illegible but it was also made in Tosa.
Bamboo like paper mulberry is only cut in winter and is a bi-occupation traditionally for the agricultural season. One sees the hand of Daimyo here, preserving their tenants and their rice incomes by establishing craft activities for the worker which
have always been supported by them and the elite of Japan.
We were warned about snakes in the forest but I wonder if this is to encourage fear to keep people out. We saw none. Very rare bamboo grows here as it is spotted. This may be because it is diseased but it is not possible to replicate or grow it elsewhere.
The shop sells bamboo knick-knacks. Many cheap pieces are in fact made abroad. Japanese products are deemed too expensive for the tourist market and are really 'art' works.
We saw the proprietor's son making lacquer baskets in a beautifully designed workshop in his house. In front was an ornate garden with pond and running water (electrically controlled). It is probably designed with tourists in mind. As
they were filming, a pilgrim in traditional white came into the garden but Carlo managed to keep her from interrupting.
Alan was interviewed quite early on so was not suffering from tiredness in the way he was yesterday with the interview at the end.
Between the forest and the factory, they managed to film a woman wearing the traditional bonnet transplanting rice seedlings. Most of the field is sown by machine but the corners are left to human labour, the wife's I suspect.
After another hurried sandwich lunch and souvenir shopping we went back to Ito to take general shots of the paper making area, particularly the paper mulberry bushes, then went back to the Holiday Inn in Kochi for the night instead of flying to Tokyo as planned.
Wednesday 14th April
Woke at 6-00 with the intention to leave the hotel at 6.30 for our flight to Tokyo. Tim, the sound recordist had been adamant that we left punctually, but he overslept. Apparently his watch had stopped at 6.25, but Carlo had tried to wake him by thumping on the door and by phone with no response, so didn’t really believe that this was the whole explanation. The ‘crew’ have to be nursed along and probably he, at least, was feeling a little bolshy after the lack of lunch breaks with only sandwiches, inevitably late. Later he told me he had just finished working on a Mike Leigh film, reconstructing the events leading to the first performance of the ‘Mikado’. It is destined for the Cannes film festival and at present is called ‘Topsy Turvy’. Very apt in the light of our present filming.
We made the flight at 7.45. One of the tense moments is getting baggage through with the amount of equipment, ours is very over-weight. They were stung for £3000 on the flight to Japan by British Airways, but most of the flights within Japan have been fine as they have overlooked the excess weight.
Filming in a Japanese school on myopia
Our first shoot was at a school where they were looking for footage on myopia. We went into a maths class of eleven year olds. The atmosphere was much the same as the school in Sapporo. The children very friendly, just bordering on being too boisterous out of lessons but it was certainly more a sign of enthusiasm than indiscipline.
The children ate in the classroom. All can have milk for next to nothing – 1000 yen a month – and meal is brought in and served by the children. They were eating buns and noodles, not an especially good diet, but designed to give them energy, I would think. After lunch this same class had its eyes tested and then Alan was interviewed with a Dr Takehashi Tokoro who has made a particular study of myopia.
He said that by age 10, 30% of children were myopic, by 15, 50% and by 18, 80%. He believes that it is a result of the intensive study of the Japanese language that the children have to undertake, studying three different writing systems of many characters which all have to be carefully distinguished from each other. He thought that brain strain also affected the eyes. Alan was delighted to have his hunch confirmed so clearly and will send Dr Tokoro anything he writes on the subject.
Kamakura and tea
Our time here overran as usual and we had the inevitable rush to Kamakura to meet Takeo Funabiki for a tea ceremony. Today we had no breakfast and little lunch, all of it taken in the car or at the airport but the tea master's wife - as in all our encounters so far, the power behind the organisation - was pretty miffed at our late arrival and said we could only see a truncated form of the ceremony. As the tea house was small and unlit, they had to rig up the film lights to shine through the 'shoji', and this lopped off more time. In the event the tea master was apparently very charming and unrushed and after the ceremony Alan was able to talk to him through Takeo, who attends this tea house quite often. The surroundings were just as one had read about. Kamakura is a delightful setting with the garden ringed with tall trees that formed a backdrop to the much smaller, fine-leafed garden trees. One pink cherry was in flower, otherwise there was little but trees and moss. The stones had been watered. I noted one large stone under a roof was also watered, so even the placing of water is contrived. It is an amazing artifice and apparently the tea master's acolytes had been working all day to get the garden just right. I noted a stone tied with string. This is to indicate a barrier over which one shouldn't cross. This would have meant that most of the garden would only be viewed, not walked over.
David asked me to film in the back preparation area of the tea house where an acolyte boiled water and whisked green tea which was then carried into the main room. Everything there was as calm and measured as the tea room, perhaps more so as I was the only camera-person. After the ceremony they tried to film the garden in the gloaming and Takeo took us to another garden which he said he preferred where there was a large thatched tea house which had been brought from Kyoto by the tea master's father. An acolyte told me later that there are about 20 tea houses on this site so it is really "tea-ceremony inc." We were invited into the reception area to take thick green tea afterwards though Takeo and Alan only had ordinary tea. It was delightful to sample the thick mixture again and admire the tea bowls. I can't think what the crew made of the tiny sugar cakes that preceded it.
Tokyo again
15th April 1999
The Kojunsha club
Alan's busiest day. We went first to the "Kojunsha", the gentlemen's club founded by Fukuzawa which we'd visited with Toshiko in 1997. Alan was to meet Mr Hattori, President of the Seiko Corporation and President in the club. He was filmed touring the building, talking with Mr Hattori about it and Fukuzawa. They seemed to get on well. Mr Hattori was keen that Alan should write a book on Fukuzawa and offered to help him. I kept well out of the way, partly because it is a gentlemen's club and I didn't want to shock any of the predominantly elderly gentlemen who inhabit this place. I filmed a little in the main area, including a portrait of Utsunomia, a microbiologist disciple of Pasteur.
Masako (Kudo) came at midday. Lovely to see her again and she stayed with us until near the end of Alan's lecture in the Speech Hall and Keio University. Mr Hattori ordered lunch for all of us, including Masako and the driver. He later apologised for the simplicity of the meal, but it was one of the nicest that we have had. We then went to Keio University.
The Fukuzawa archive and the Speech Hall
There was some time to fill before Alan's lecture so we were shown some of Fukuzawa's copies of books including Buckle and J.S. Mill, also his notebook taken on his European journey. The first entry was the address of W & G Chambers in London. There were entries in French and Dutch as well as English and Japanese. An emeritus professor of literature - Audo - spoke before Alan, in English, on Fukuzawa. He had a very cultured English pronunciation and quoted extensively from Carmen Blacker's translation of Fukuzawa's autobiography which is the classic version in English. Alan gave a very polished, interesting performance despite the antics of the film crew. Tim even dashed up to adjust Alan's mike during a break for translation.
Filming in the restaurant.
Osamu Saito came while we were in the archive, and his wife was at the talk. After the Speech Hall film we went to a small Japanese restaurant where Alan and Osamu were filmed in conversation. They wanted a long sequence of Osamu talking as he is their best Japanese speaker of English and they need to use footage of him in most of the programmes. Tim and Lawrence leave tomorrow for England and then fly to Pakistan to make a programme, on surveillance, on Sunday. What a life! I gave them the pictures made by the paper maker which are now dry.
16.4.1999
The Bullet Train to Osaka
Had a later start though the crew were filming trains since 7.15am. We were picked up at 10.15am and taken to Tokyo station to join the Shinkansen to Osaka. Much filming of Alan on the train. We had quarter of the carriage to ourselves with a JR minder so there was the possibility of all sorts of shots. David had a near miss earlier while filming in the middle of the road near the station. Alan covered a number of important subjects such as urban sprawl, comparison of the "Rocket" with the Shinkansen, and England and Japan's industrialisation. Even his lunch was filmed so that an anecdote from Fukuzawa's autobiography comparing himself to an item in a Japanese lunch box speared out by a toothpick into the wider world. In all, the crew had only 15 minutes when they were not filming.
Osaka castle and guns
At Osaka station there were no trolleys or porters. Carlo's attempt to use a trolley was interrupted by two officials, and despite David's expostulation, all the equipment and cases had to be carried outside to our van. As a consequence, on reaching Osaka Castle, they found that a large tripod had been left on the platform, and Carlo and the Japanese sound man had to go back to collect it. Robin, the new cameraman made do with the smaller tripod and did all the exterior shots until we reached the castle gate and found the rest of the crew.
Osaka Castle has been reconstructed in concrete since the war when it was finally all destroyed so it has a fake feeling, especially when one gets inside. However, it is supposed to be a faithful replica of the castle built by order of the Shogun, paid for by the Daimyo, in 1630. The museum has little of real interest. Even the battle scene screens and the golden tea room built by Hideyoshi, are fake, but there is some beautifully preserved armour in the vault with some guns and other weapons. The earliest armour, C14, had little lumps of iron about the size of a finger tip imbedded in the lacquered layers. By the C16 they had learnt how to make iron plates and the lacquer strips were sheets of iron. There is an enormous variety in style, particularly in helmets, and colour. We had thought that this was an attempt to distinguish the commanders but it was apparently a desire of the armourers to advertise their skills and the fashion sense of the wearer that dictated the style.
The interior of the castle is as any modern building, and the vaults give no hint of what they could have been like. Also the museum does not attempt to show the interior usage or living arrangements of the occupiers, so one gets little sense of the period. We escaped through the many locked doors to a floodlit outside so even the silhouette of the vast structure in darkness couldn't be captured. The Japanese seem content with this Disneyland as so many of their traditional buildings, including the Ise shrine, are rebuilt as exact replicas from time to time.
The hotel had 23 floors so was significantly higher than the one in Tokyo. This suggests a greater confidence that they won't be affected by earthquakes. We ate in a Chinese restaurant which was a pleasant change. The new cameraman is a nice man - English, sent to Sydney to school, and now living in Japan with a Japanese wife and two small daughters about the same age as Lily and Rosa. We had a good discussion about the conformity of the Japanese where shame rather than sin effects their behaviour, and there is no strict sense of right and wrong.
17.4.1999
The Ogata Koan school
To the Ogata school where Fukuzawa was educated. The present building was made 20 years ago as a replica by the Ministry of Education as the previous (I can't say original) structure was getting old and rotten. It is a traditional Osaka merchant's house of some charm with garden and walkways through it and plenty of 'shoji' and 'tatami'. It was interesting to see the kitchen and dining arrangements with the lower stone floor for cooking etc. and the raised platform for eating.
Two academics from Osaka University came to be interviewed with Alan. The Vice-Chancellor of the University he was also an expert on public health and had done his research on Chadwick etc. and the improvements effected in England. David had shown him Alan's book and told him that it was being translated and should be published fairly soon. He stressed the value of urine in Japanese agriculture so when I noticed that there was a perfectly sited toilet - the "Ladies" in fact - with a view of the garden at crouching height, he seemed surprised at my enthusiasm as he was unaware that the English did not use urine. A rather strange omission for a man who has studied the history of public health in England.
I noticed the "grass" which had been taken to Keio to plant at the place where Fukuzawa died. Apparently, the great grandson of Tomso Ogata planted it at Keio. It is called 'tekijuku ran' (ran = orchid though it is not one). They said it had a violet flower. Alan told them he had taken some from Keio and planted it at home. "Teki teki sai" appears in calligraphy on a scroll in the 'tokomoma', written by Fukuzawa. It has the meaning of democratic behaviour rather than autocratic - doing things because you believe in them not because someone tells you to - a very revolutionary concept at the time and central to Fukuzawa's thought. Two or three other pupils at the school were also particularly significant in the context of Japan's revolution after the Tokugawa. Nagayo, known as the founder of public health in Japan visited the USA and Europe 1871-73 and learnt the Dutch system. He left a diary but it is probably not translated. Umero Masojero (later named Murata Zoroku) was an army strategist who introduced the idea of peasant or peoples' army. Oshima Takato started the Japanese iron industry at Kamaishi near Sendai in 1860.
The school survived during the lifetime of Ogata between 1835-63. 637 pupils are recorded by their signatures but the actual number of students in total was probably about 1000. At any one time there were between 40-50 pupils. In the family's room of the house is a portrait of Ogata's wife. There is a small wooden carving of him in the house and a nice enlargement in an adjacent garden. Apparently, Fukuzawa was heavily influenced by his father although he died soon after Fukuzawa's birth, for example, by a poem about seeing a leper at his gate and reflecting that leprosy was not a result of sin but of poor hygiene - a revolutionary thought at that time, but significant for Fukuzawa's later career.
Filming in a Japanese toilet
Having noted the ladies lavatory was a perfect example of the traditional toilet according to Morse's account, Alan was filmed in it, describing the importance of human excrement to Japanese agriculture. They also filmed a fire-watchers' platform and a 'kura'. This house has been perfect for showing the Japanese house and its particular features, and a fine foil for Alan to expound his theories and tell the story.
Evening in Kyoto
We drove to Kyoto in the mid-afternoon, later than intended, and drove up to the Kiyanzu Temple to get general views of Kyoto. The light was not terribly good as it had clouded over, but Robin managed to film some unsuspecting ladies in kimono. They had hoped to see some 'maiko' but we saw none. Our hotel is by the airport and is quite sparse and utilitarian by Japanese standards.
18.4.1999
Shigeraki pottery
Most of the day spent filming at Shigaraki at the one working kiln ('noborigama') that is still in general production. The potter whose family has been here for seven generations and maybe longer is Juho Ueda. He must be in his 50's though difficult to be exact. The first impression of the area is that every village for miles around makes pots and garden figures - grotesque racoons of all sizes are everywhere. However, they also make fine pottery of amazing subtle colour and texture caused by the wood firing. We were greeted by Mr Uedo in the main shop. He was seated at a raised table with a firebox in the middle over which a kettle was suspended on a fish hook. He gave us minute quantities of tea in small cups similar in size to saki cups. He thought pottery had been made here for 1250 years but was substantially improved in design and technique with the influx of Korean potters brought to Japan by Hideyoshi.
There was a very long filming session in the kiln house. It was last fired in February and is being packed now for a May firing. The pottery may continue within the family although Mr Ueda's son does abstract ceramics. I was quite overwhelmed by the scale of production here. As this was Sunday only a few of his employees were working. In the throwing shop, for instance, there were three other potters there when we filmed, but benches and wheels for about ten. Similarly, in the room below there were two men making large garden pots using coil and wheel method. It may have been the result of the wet day or the fact that they'd been called in to work on Sunday, but none of the employees except for the kiln stacker looked very happy. One lad in the garden pots' area was positively hostile and at one stage stalked off during filming. Even Mr Ueda only cheered up at the end when we settled down for a last thimbleful of tea and a bean cake. He gave us all handleless cups though I had bought others on our way round, also two sets of tools for Matt.
David had hoped to get some film of the countryside round Kyoto but the weather was grim. We had a very nice lunch in a small Japanese-style room next to Mr Uedo's house. It was served in lacquer boxes and bowls and we sat on cushions on 'tatami'.
Filming with geisha in Kyoto
We hurried back to Kyoto to try to catch maiko and geisha in Gion. Carlo had gone on ahead and by chance we drove up and saw him with three maiko. Robin leapt out and started filming, pushing a small Japanese man and woman out of the way to catch close-up shots. It was only later that we found out that this gentleman had hired the ladies so that he could follow and photograph them. David and Carlo, even Robin, wondered it they were real geisha but they looked authentic and Carlo was keen to be photographed with them. I found Alan chatting with one in English. She had been to Cambridge on holiday, so they swapped addresses and he invited her to call any time. I took a photo of them together too.
The camera crew then moved to the long street at the centre of Gion and caught a number of maiko and geisha trotting by to their assignments. Our job was holding back crowds bemused by the camera. In general, Japanese people are extremely cooperative and a number of women walked and re-walked parts of the street when asked to. They even took the camera to the street running on the west side of the main river where we hoped to eat. This proved difficult as many restaurants were unsuitable, expensive or full, but we eventually found a very nice one - again 'tatami' and cushions and good Japanese food.
19.4.1999
Filming in a Sake factory
We went early in the morning to the 'Gekkeikan Sake Factory'. This place makes sake for the Imperial household by royal warrant. 'Gekkeikan' is the laurel and we saw it in a number of the shrine boxes high on the walls. Shinto symbols - ropes and angular paper - were strung up over several doors. Sake making had that element of luck to a high degree before the makers really understood the chemistry and could reproduce it with confidence which made the intercession to the gods necessary. This factory has two sites, one is a modern factory but the one we filmed was an old building and the methods and tools used are traditional. Here, sake is only made in winter which was the only method until recently as warm weather increased the risk of infection, and also it fitted the bi-occupation pattern. Sake was brewed here specifically because it had very pure water. A canal runs behind and huge sake barrels were transported by barge on it.
The equipment used in the past was made of wood - 'hikoku'? and cedar. The great barrels, used in the past for cooking and mashing rice, and storing, are of cedar bound with bamboo. I had a sudden insight on the link between coopers and wheels in England. Without the metal rim, there is no way that the wooden sections of a wheel could be held together. This might explain in part the lack of wheels in Japan until Meiji. As rice is such a valuable crop and food source, only 5% of it was ever used for sake production. The residue from production was squeezed into rice cake to be eaten by humans and animals, used to flavour pickles, and even, for paper. I was told of the health giving properties of sake cake as it contains peptides and fibre and is particularly good to control blood pressure and as an anti-clogging substance. This company is investigating the production of sake cake pills but I was told that this was top secret at present.
Filming took all morning and part of the afternoon. The managing director with whom I spoke for some time was keen that we drank some sake but I said we would not have time. Therefore he gave us three small bottles and three saki cups before we left and we drank all of them over supper and ate the cakes that Koko had given in Tokyo. We had to rush off, late as ever, to see a monk at the Kodaiji Temple.
Filming a monk in the Kodaiji Temple
It was a very attractive place for filming and the rain was only sporadic. David and Carlo had no lunch as they had to speak with the monk and we could find nothing for them but very dry rice cakes coated with red pepper and curry powder. Carlo and I went off to look at the calligraphy place near the Heian shrine and to see if there was a 'shoji' maker in a street where we'd seen one on our last visit. I managed to buy brushes for Matt in the calligraphy centre though I don't know if they will film there, but we only found a tatami maker, a carpenter and a paper doll workshop, and no 'shoji' maker. We returned to the temple to find them still filming Alan talking to the monk. We were expected at the Hakusasonso tea garden at 4.00pm but were running late again. The garden shots at the temple will be done tomorrow morning.
Filming in a tea house in Kyoto
Despite our late arrival, the owner of the tea garden was very hospitable and amenable. She was dressed in a pale green kimono. Alan was filmed in one of the small tea houses talking on the mystery of health as cities grew, and the possible influence of tea. The setting was idyllic. They lit candles as it grew dark all along the paths, and at the end we were given sake under a huge flowering cherry tree, the blossom drifting into the sake if you were lucky. A magical ending to the filming trip. We had our final meal together at a nice Japanese restaurant near the hotel which Robin knew.
Japan filming: brief log, April 1999
(before Alan and Sarah arrived; filming traditional sword making and inside the control room of the JR railways)
Sunday 11th April, Nagasaki
- film of the memorial to the Christian martyrs
- Deshima, a model of the original Dutch enclave
- a reconstructed Dutch merchant’s house
Monday 12th April. Shikoku
- traditional Japanese paper making museum
Tuesday 13th April. Shikoku
- bamboo workshop and cutting bamboos in forest
- planting rice
- bamboo craftsman
Wednesday 14th April, Tokyo & Kamakura
- school in Tokyo, eye testing and interview with ophthalmologist (Dr. Tokoro)
- tea ceremony in Kamakura
Thursday 15th April
- Kojunsha club in Tokyo
- Lecture in speech hall at Keio University
- Dinner and conversation with Osamu Saito
Friday 16th April
- Shinkansen train to Osaka, filming on train
- Inside the castle at Osaka, weapons
Saturday 17th April Osaka.
- Ogata Koan school where Fukuzawa was taught
- Filming in a Japanese toilet
- Filming a kura (fire-proof warehouse)
- Travelled to Kyoto: filming in temple overlooking Kyoto
Sunday 18th April, Kyoto and environs
- filming in climbing kiln at Shigaraki
- geisha ladies in Gion
Monday 19th April, Kyoto
- filming at the Gekkeikan sake factory
- filming with a monk at the Koaiji temple
- in small tea garden by lake in Kyoto
Tuesday 20th April, Kyoto
(Alan and Sarah returned to England; the last filming by Carlo Massarella)
- a maiko (trainee geisha) getting dressed up
- lacquer painting.