胡座

Japanese

Kanji in this term
胡	座
あ Jinmeiyō	くら > ぐら Grade: 6
irregular	kun'yomi

Alternative spelling
胡坐

胡座している豊臣秀吉, Toyotomi Hideyoshi sitting cross-legged

Etymology

From 足(あし) (ashi, “foot”) + 座(くら) (kura, “sitting”), /asikura/ becomes /agura/ in later periods of sound shifts.

The first attestation is found in Myogisho written as 胡 (“non-Han people, particularly Turks and Mongols and other Central Asians”) +‎ 床 (“bed”).

Equivalent to Indian style, in referring to the sitting habits of plains-dwelling nomads.

Noun

胡(あ)座(ぐら) • (agura) 

1. cross-legged sitting

See also

• あぐらをかく (agura o kaku)
• 跪座(きざ) (kiza)
• 正座(せいざ) (seiza)

References

• “〈^▲胡座〉”, in 漢字ぺディア [Kanjipedia]‎^[1] (in Japanese), The Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation, 2015–2026