Zabuton

[6] In a more casual setting, the zabuton can be used in conjunction with a zaisu, a type of Japanese legless chair, with or without an accompanying kyōsoku (脇息), a Japanese-style armrest.

[9] They are sometimes made with threaded embroidery[10] and tassels on the four corners and at the center of the zabuton, and often with a removable outer cover that can be washed separately.

[13] The zabuton originates from an earlier type of cushion called a shitone (Japanese: 褥), used in early Japan by the aristocratic class.

[12]: 153  One traditional method of making a zabuton involves layered cotton stuffing laid on top of a square piece of fabric, folded in half with two sides stitched closed.

These were circular, plaited grass cushions that were gradually replaced in everyday usage by the shitone and zabuton during the Edo period (1600–1868)[12] after cotton was introduced to Japan.

[21] In yose, notably on the long-running television show Shōten, comedians receive zabuton as a form of scoring, which are also taken away as punishment for bad jokes.