Ganjigarame 雁字搦め

Japanese for bound hand and foot; ganjigarame describes rope that holds the whole body completely immobile, rather than one specific tie.

In everyday Japanese, ganjigarame (雁字搦め) describes tying a person up completely, and in a figurative sense being hemmed in by rules or duties (Jisho). Nawapedia places it in its kinbaku glossary for bondage that covers a person from head to toe or leaves them wholly trapped, and notes the spelling 雁字搦目, which SMpedia also uses. Shibari Study likewise uses the word for being fully immobilized hand and foot, and Andrea Ropes calls it a mummification rope, any tie that immobilizes the whole body. Nawapedia cites an April 1960 Fūzoku Kitan text that describes the prawn torment, ebi-zeme, as a woman bound in ganjigarame.

Sources

  1. 雁字搦め — Jisho.org
  2. Ganjigarame — Nawapedia
  3. 雁字搦め — SMpedia (Wayback Machine snapshot, 2025-05-23)
  4. Glossary — Shibari Study
  5. Glossary — Andrea Ropes