I knew it! Seiza isn't that old after all...
Did any of you ride your bikes home last night? I did. And it was pretty chilly! Today and tomorrow will be gorgeous and after that...who knows!? It's looking like rain and cloudy weather with highs in the mid 20s all week...
Do you do any traditional Japanese hobbies like tea ceremony, calligraphy or flower arranging? If so, you've probably spent a fair bit of time sitting seiza...
The word seiza is written 正座 in Japanese. 正 (sei) means correct and 座 (za) means a seat, so seiza has a meaning of “sit correctly”.
There is Anza (安座). Basically, it's a way of sitting that looks like you're doing yoga. If you practice yoga, this may be familiar to you.
Sonkyo (蹲踞) is what Japanese call, unching style (うんちんぐスタイル) because this is how people crouch in Japanese-style toilets. Samurai would usually sit this way even in the Edo period (after seiza was introduced). In samurai TV programs, all of them sit in seiza but in reality, sonkyo seems to be more common.
Sonkyo is also called, “Yankii zuwari (ヤンキー座り)”. Rebellious youth in the 80s would sit like this and the name stuck.
Have you ever sat seiza? Maybe you can do it better than me, but I can´t do it even for five minutes. After 10 minutes, my legs are already numb. Samurai were warriors and had to always be ready for a sudden attack. It wouldn´t have made much sense if they had numb feet and couldn't stand up, not to mention that moving from seiza to standing takes too long for a warrior. Until mid-Edo, the correct way of sitting (seiza) for samurai was agura (cross legs) or tatehiza (one knee up). What we now call seiza was actually called Kiza (危坐/跪座) back then.
Samurai were obliged to sit seiza in the presence of the shogun in the Edo period. It was the way of sitting to show obedience and loyalty.
In the middle of the Edo period, seiza started to become more common. The book “正座と日本人 (Seiza to Nihonjin / Seiza and Japanese)” explains that seiza was a symbol of the control of the Shogunate. Shogun and Daimyo (feudal lord) forced the lower classes to sit that way to show obedience. And it may have also been a way to sit as a courtesy in the hierarchical society...
So, now that I know how relatively new seiza is as a way of sitting, I can sit however I like when I'm in a tatami room without feeling guilty. And so can you! If someone gives you crap for sitting cross-legged, you can now give them a short lesson in Japanese history...ha ha!
Have a great day!