a round cushion made of woven bulrush leaves, used for zazen (seated Zen meditation) · short for 座布団 (zabuton, “sitting cushion”)
köken: Borrowed from Literary Chinese, possibly early Mandarin 蒲團／蒲团 (pútuán), likely as part of the importation of Zen Buddhism, for which practice these were originally used. First cited in Japanese to a text from the early-mid 1200s with the "meditation cushion" sense. Originally referred literally to a 蒲 (pú, “bulrush, cattail”) 團／团 (tuán, “ball”), from the way these were round cushions made from…