Talk:Seiza

Question about usage of seiza in English

If seiza is a "way of sitting" (i.e. a style of sitting), is it necessary to say "sitting seiza-style" or "sits seiza style" as the article does in most places? It seems a bit redundant. Would it be more correct to say "one is in seiza" rather than "one is sitting seiza-style"? I've certainly heard it used in a teaching situation without having to explicitly say "sit". --Ds13 02:49, 2005 Apr 10 (UTC)

I think either way is fine. On the other hand, it's not as familiar a word in English as, say, tsunami or kimono, so I thought it was best to be as non-confusing as possible. Style is also a consideration: it's preferrable to avoid saying the same thing the same way too many times. I think nearly any construction is fine, really. Exploding Boy 23:22, Apr 10, 2005 (UTC)

Long-term effects?

Are there any long-term effects of extended seiza? Some people have claimed that it causes injury to the knees and/or circulation over time, while others claim it improves these. This information would improve the article, I think. I'm starting to get used to it myself, but it still feels like my knee caps want to burst open. Zuiram 06:58, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

As you say, some claim this, some claim that... Without any reliable references, we can't really say. Exploding Boy 07:03, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

I would like to see a pronunciation with proper accents placed parenthetically after words that might not be familiar to the general reader. Is it say' ee za? say ee' za? say ee za'? Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by [[User:{{{1}}}|{{{1}}}]] ([[User talk:{{{1}}}|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/{{{1}}}|contribs]])

say-za. Exploding Boy 02:02, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

Versus kneeling

It would be good to explain this, as people could confuse the two since both involve being on the knee. The key difference seems to be that kneeling has the bottom of the foot touching (even if it is only the ball or the bottom of the toe) whereas, being in seize is sitting because the only part of the foot that touches is the top. The foot is plantar-flexed at the ankle so the top is an extension of the line of the shin, whereas with kneeling the foot is dorsi flexed and forms a 90 degree (or so) angle. There might be other differences I'm not picking up on here too.

I am confused as to what the difference between kneeling and kiza is though. Can someone explain that? Tyciol (talk) 01:51, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Disambiguation

Just wondering if this page could do with a disambiguation. "Seiza" can also transliterate 靜坐 which means "quiet sitting" rather than "proper sitting" and is used in the Confucian tradition. In Chinese (Pinyin transliteration) it is "jing zuo" and there is a wiki page for this. Jing zuo Hundovir (talk) 00:10, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

Actually, I think a "hatnote" would be sufficient. -Hundovir (talk) 17:12, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

Have added hatnote. - Hundovir (talk) 18:47, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

Bare kneed

While I know how much you Wikipedians love to include pictures of yourself in articles, there really isn't ever a situation in which one should sit seiza baring any leg. Even in classes in which jeans are allowed for convenience's sake, shorts are greatly discouraged. 206.29.182.210 (talk) 00:50, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

I deleted them, they were more of an eyesore and didn't capture the gracefulness of sitting Seiza. And Seiza was misspelled in the captions — Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.208.76.34 (talk) 07:44, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

External Links section

I tried to follow the first link in the external links section and got a 404 error. I removed the direct link in my browser to go to the flashmavi webpage and it seems that the entire Ninjutsu section of their page is currently giving a 404 error. I was just going to remove the link entirely but noticed in the page history that the link had been fixed on 23 Feb 2014 so I thought it may be important to someone. Since this was my first visit to this page I've decided to leave it in the hands of a regular contributor. Also, IMHO the second page linked to also seems a little messy and hard to read and doesn't mention Seiza by name (kneel sitting?). Again, I'm leaving that to a regular contributor to this page. Wolfhound668 (talk) 17:15, 31 March 2015 (UTC)

In the "Form" section...

At the bottom of the "Form" section, there is no elaboration on what this means: "Stepping into and out of seiza is performed mindfully. There are codified traditional methods of entering and exiting the sitting position depending on occasion and type of clothing worn." Does this mean that you have to get up in different ways if you're wearing different clothes? If seiza is 'Proper sitting', then what is supposed to be the 'Proper way to get up'? This might need to be elaborated on beyond "there are ways to get up..." like what ARE those ways? I don't mean to be annoying, but this is the one thing bothering me about this page. Can someone who knows more than me please address this? 138.43.60.243 (talk) 14:50, 12 June 2025 (UTC)

Looked into this further, and the only references to properly entering/exiting that I can find are specific to when sitting in seiza for specific martial arts, and maybe for tea ceremonies? This is all based on a couple Google searches on the topic (and I've never actually been a Wiki editor before lol), so I want to leave room for others with more experience to speak on it too!

https://www.kendo-guide.com/how_to_sit_in_seiza.html

https://nihonjinron.wordpress.com/2011/07/03/the-posture-of-seiza-how-to-stand-how-to-sit/ (this one is a translation of a page originally in Japanese) Splatoon phan (talk) 04:06, 18 August 2025 (UTC)