1.
tightrope walking
The acrobatic performance of walking across a stretched rope or wire.
サーカスの綱渡りを見た。
I watched the tightrope walking at the circus.
綱渡りの芸人がバランスを取りながら進んだ。
The tightrope performer advanced while maintaining balance.
高さ十メートルの綱渡りに観客は息をのんだ。
The audience held their breath at the tightrope walk ten meters up.
2.
risky undertaking; precarious balancing act
A figurative use describing a situation where one manages a dangerous or delicate balance, often with little margin for error.
毎月の家計は綱渡りだ。
Our monthly household budget is a tightrope act.
締め切りぎりぎりの綱渡りが続いている。
The precarious juggling of barely meeting deadlines continues.
二つの仕事を掛け持ちしながら育児もするのは、まさに綱渡りの毎日だ。
Juggling two jobs while raising children is truly a daily tightrope act.
Literally "rope crossing" — composed of 綱 (rope) + 渡り (crossing). The figurative sense is extremely common in everyday Japanese, used whenever describing a precarious situation with little room for error.
COMMON COLLOCATIONS:
- 綱渡りの毎日 (precarious daily life)
- 綱渡りの経営 (precarious management)
- 綱渡りの状態 (precarious state)
- 綱渡りを続ける (keep walking the tightrope)
SIMILAR WORDS:
- 薄氷を踏む — to tread on thin ice (similar figurative sense of danger)
- 危うい — dangerous, precarious (adjective describing the state itself)