Japanese-English shibari glossary: Hishi (菱). The diamond pattern of a tie: aesthetic and practical function, and its relation to kikko and kame shibari.

Hishi (菱) means “diamond” (a rhombus); it is used when the ropes take on that pattern.

Using “rhombus” or “diamond” shapes in a tie has an aesthetic component, and also a practical one, since, depending on how we build the “diamond”, it can give the structure an interesting dynamism.

When the pattern created forms a hexagon, the terms vary: from roku (六), “six”, to the more poetic kikko (亀甲), which refers to a tortoise's shell and was very widely used a few decades ago.

In this context, it is worth distinguishing kikko from another technique it is often confused with: kame shibari (亀縛り), literally “tortoise tie”.

Although both refer to the animal's shell, they do not mean the same thing: kikko refers to the hexagonal geometric pattern, while kame shibari is a type of tie from classic kinbaku, often used by riggers such as Yagami Ren.

A variation of this technique is the kame shibari henka (亀縛り變化), which applies the kame shibari style to the legs as an evolution of the tie known as muri (無理).

The latter uses a linear counter-tension technique; by adding the hexagonal pattern typical of kikko, the kame shibari henka brings dynamism to that counter-tension, combining both principles in a single structure.