KT11 Word Line
おためごかし
御為ごかし
Otamegokashi
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Meaning
self-interest dressed as kindness
Pretending to act for someone else's sake while actually serving one's own interest.
Example
「君のためを思って」という忠告は、ただのおためごかしだった。
The advice offered "for your own good" was nothing but self-interest dressed up as concern.
Origin
Gokashi is the voiced form of kokashi, the continuative form of the verb kokasu (転かす, to tip over). As a suffix it adds the sense of using something as a pretext to serve oneself. Shinsetsu-gokashi (feigned kindness) has the same form. An example appears in the jōruri play Gion Nyōgo Kokonoe no Nishiki (1760).