Two Types of Seizas? What is Mokuso then?

by Juan Pablo
(Barcelona)

Hi Imafuji Sensei!

First of all, I'd like to thank you for your generosity. I've learned a lot of things going through your videos, explanations and answers to different questions. Great job!

I'm a complete beginner, I just put bogu on a couple of weeks ago, so I'm learning all again. I'm 41, not a boy, but actually addicted to kendo.

Here's my question:

In my dojo, after practice, in order to calm down and reflect on practice, the command our sensei says is "Seiza" while in general, I find that the common word for this is "Mokuso". Is it correct either way?

It's a minimum doubt, I have bigger things to discover, but I'll get to them with practice.

Thanks!!

Answer: Thank you for your kind words and question! Seiza has two meanings actually. Well, they do use different characters. Please see the image I uploaded since I was not sure how Japanese characters would appear on non-Japanese browsers.

Seiza 1: Correct Way to Sit

Seiza 2: Quietly and calmly maintain the sitting position i.e. same as mokuso or meditation

Mokuso: Deeply and quietly consider something (meditation)

So seiza 2 above and mokuso have the similar meaning. And it is true that some dojo uses two seizas

1. Seiza! (sitting down) or some use Chakuza!

2. Seiza! (quietly and calmly maintain your sitting position with the same breathing method as mokuso). Of course, mokuso is also used too.

Hope this helps.

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