Fusuma doors

I've noticed in period Japanese films that when a woman opens or closes a sliding door she does so in two stages. What's the story behind that?

Tony, I hear the most polite way to open a Fusuma door is to do in 3 steps. Anyhow, this step-by-step action is designed to give a warning/sign to the person inside the room that he/she will have an incoming guest. When you open a Fusuma just a bit, the guest cannot see what is going on in the room. Thus, the person inside the room can prepare himself/herself for the incoming guest.

I just thought that this action is somewhat equivalent to "knocking" on the door. (We do not knock on a fusuma door)

A lot of Japanese manners originate in the way of tea (tea ceremony). Or maybe it's just that traditional manners are reflected in the way of tea, I'm not sure.

Anyway, I was taught that the manners of tea is quite practical. You grab the tea bowl with your right hand, and once it is brought closer to you by this right hand you hold it with both hands, because it is more proper, more sincere and safer to use both hands. But by using only one hand first, you don't need to strech both hands and loose your balance or what not, plus the movement would appear more elegant.

Similarly, when entering a room, you would want to kneel down right in front of the place you turn out entering your whole body, which eventually would be in the center of one whole fusuma panel (door). Therefore, the edge of that panel would come to the edge of your body, which is often the right-hand side of your body. So it's practical to slightly slide the panel using only your right hand. Once the panel is slided closer to your other hand, you can use both hands to slide the rest enough so that your body can enter.

Of course, this also gives you a result that J-lady just explained. I don't know which came first, the respect for privacy or phycical practicalness, but that's the way I understand it.

Btw Tony, it's not just periodical women who follows this manner. Modern men and women are also supposed to do this. It's just that people are more flexible nowadays and men have always been a bit more rough :)

Thank you JLady and Uco. It makes sense now. I suppose a lot of rituals and traditions stem from very practical ways of doing things. But only a Japanese lady can make opening a door look so elegant and graceful.