PUBLIC MARKS with tag seiza

Things don’t get more Japanese than sitting in seiza do they? Seiza (correct sitting) is the ‘sitting on knees’ position adopted in many Ways of life in traditional Japan, including chado (tea ceremony), shodo (calligraphy), ikebana (flower arranging) and many martial arts. Never has man risked showing disrespect to his seniors more than being unable to correctly get into, maintain, move and get out of the seiza position!

copyright © 2010 Kim Taylor, all rights reserved I notice this topic has once again reappeared on a discussion forum. I had my say on this 20 years ago in an article from "The Iaido Newsletter" and I will re-print that here, but I also have a little bit of new data for the consideration of the readers.

This should be done with a light bokuto and saya so as to be able to focus on the proper form and technique, not on strength or speed! Stand up practice should be done before seiza techniques, especially for beginners. Go slowly to get the "feel" of the proper technique. Every movement comes from the hara. For each movement, push the hara forward and slightly down, while opening the chest. Speed and strength come only after correct form. Points to remember:

This is the first in a continuing series of articles on the Japanese art of iaido the modern discipline or way of drawing the sword that was popularized in the 1930's. It was derived from iaijutsu, a sub-specialization of kenjutsu (sword arts) that was practiced by professional (samurai) warriors and involved methods of drawing the sword and cutting as a single motion. Future articles will focus on concepts that relate to practice and then on specific analyses of kata and basic techniques.