Seiza Chair

August 15, 2006 on 3:44 pm | In Culture, Gadgets | | Email This Post

Many of you may be familiar with the formal style of sitting in Japan called “seiza” (正座).

This style of sitting looks very elegant, and most people try to endure it for at least 10 minutes while at a formal setting such as a wedding dinner held in a tatami room.

These days, men are usually allowed to skip seiza all together and go cross-legged (or AGURA 胡座 as they call it in Japanese…), especially if they are wearing a suit and not traditional Japanese formal dress.

However, for those ladies, even if they are wearing a western dress and not a kimono, seiza can still be expected.

But there is a solution!

The seiza chair.

It’s an incredibly low stool that goes on top of the zabuton pillow for sitting. You can fold your legs backwards under this stool, and sit your bottom on top.

Behold! Now even the most uncultured slob can do seiza for hours on end!

In reality though, these stools only increase the seiza tolerance factor of the average Japanese girl by about 3x. Most people at the wedding where I saw these had tossed the stools to the side and given up on the seiza in a little less than an hour.

On another side note, I was at a Noh play once, and one of the members playing the flute while sitting seiza almost fell over after the performance because his legs had fallen asleep.

Ouch.

- Harvey

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8 Comments »

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  1. Gravatar

    hahah. i would buy one if they sell it here. my akido teacher makes us kneel like that for hours. after which, i m sure my legs go blue with no blood flowing over there.

    Comment by Amiya — August 16, 2006 #

  2. Gravatar

    I’ve built one myself! It’s excellent when I need to work long hours, it wont let you sleep or lose focus .

    Comment by acjama — August 16, 2006 #

  3. Gravatar

    You built one?! When?? Was it before seeing this post? That’s incredible… I bet you own the only one outside of Japan!

    Comment by Harvey — August 16, 2006 #

  4. Gravatar

    The odd things is that seiza means the correct way to sit, yet it’s far from that. Look at bandy legged,pigeon toed Japanese girls for proof of that.

    Comment by Richard — August 17, 2006 #

  5. Gravatar

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    Pingback by » 2006 » August » 27 — August 21, 2006 #

  6. Gravatar

    Wow, I could have used one of those at the funeral…

    Comment by zen — August 22, 2006 #

  7. Gravatar

    Hey you went to a funeral in Japan? That’s one of the few cermony-ish things that I havent had a chance to do yet… Interesting!

    Comment by Harvey — August 22, 2006 #

  8. Gravatar

    My sister (who used to fly to Japan as part of her job) brought back a similar stool to help with her back. Her stool, however, had a central support so the foot went between her ankles instead of on the outsides. I’ve built a similar one out of wood, but mine is significantly less stable, probably `cuz I’m such a klutz with woodworking tools. I also searched on the web and found some very nice (but expensive) stools, more like the style you show.

    Comment by rmiyag — August 31, 2006 #

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