black rope for binding criminals; imprisonment
Archaic term referring to the black rope used to bind criminals in historical contexts, and by extension the state of being bound or imprisoned. Not used in modern Japanese outside of classical literature or historical descriptions.
In ancient documents, there are descriptions of binding criminals with the black rope.
'Ruisetsu' is a word that refers to being bound in an old prison.
Archaic kanji form; both characters are uncommon and the word itself is historical.
Variant kanji form with the same meaning and reading.
The exact derivation is uncertain; the kanji 縲 and 絏 both relate to binding or ropes, and the compound is a classical Chinese-derived term for a criminal's binding rope.