Ma 間
Japanese aesthetic idea of a meaningful interval in space or time; in rope it covers pauses, the spacing between ropes and the distance between partners.
Ma is a Japanese reading of the character 間 and broadly means gap, pause or interval (Jisho). Wikipedia describes it as a concept of negative space that may be physical or simply a perceived interval, and traces it through arts from ikebana to the martial arts. Rope teachers borrow it in two ways. Shibari Study treats ma as deliberate empty space or time: giving sensations room to develop, or balancing the space between ropes and harnesses. Andrea Ropes’s glossary takes the martial-arts sense of interval and approach, covering the distance between rigger and model, how the rigger approaches and the tempo of tying.