1.
entanglements; binding ties; constraining obligations
The web of personal, social, or business relationships that limits what one can freely do — favors owed, factional loyalties, family expectations. Almost always negative in tone.
Originally a weir of stakes and brushwood set in a river to hold back the current — hence the image of something that stops one from flowing freely.
Common collocations
- しがらみを断ち切る: to cut through the entanglements
- しがらみにとらわれる: to be caught up in obligations
- 政治のしがらみ: political entanglements
- しがらみのない立場: a position free of obligations
Usage
Usually written in hiragana. It names constraints that come from relationships, not from rules — 規則 restricts you openly, while しがらみ makes a course of action socially impossible.