Japanese Floor Chairs

Japanese Floor Seating:

Japan has retained the custom of ‘Floor Seating’. The idea behind floor seating meant that there was no need to develop raised furniture for seating and reclining. When you are sitting on the floor, everything remains low and is therefore reachable from a sitting position on the floor. There is no need for people to stand on any of the furniture in Japan as it is all low to the ground. When people are seated on the floor, they will always see things from a ‘fixed’ perspective and it has been said that consideration to detail of furniture for example is only taken into account on the front of furniture pieces as this is all that would be seen from this level. The sides and back of a furniture piece, design is not important aesthetically.
This concept was generated from the Architectural idea of ‘From the Floor Up’. This theory is also known as ‘Shitsurai’.

The average height of a Japanese male is: 171.5cm (5’7.5’’)
The average height for a Japanese female is: 158cm (5’2.2’’)

The average height from the floor for a dining table chair is considered to be 420mm. When researching Japanese people and furniture, I found in the above extract that the preferred height of a dining chair for Japanese women is 368.3mm.

Reference: "Traditional Japanese Furniture" - Kazuko Koizumi, Alfred.T Birnbaum