Nawagashira 縄頭
"Head of the rope": the bight, usually the folded middle of a doubled rope where a tie often begins; the counterpart of nawajiri.
Andrea Ropes explains nawagashira as the head of the rope and equates it with the bight. Shibari Study’s glossary, writing it 縄頭, also defines it as a bight, usually formed in the middle of the rope at the start of a tie, though one can be made anywhere along its length. Kinbakuwiki sets it against nawajiri, the running end: nawagashira names the other end, or the middle, of the rope. Karada House’s rope-care guide notes that the bight at the middle of a rope is the part that wears fastest.