SM bar SMバー
A Japanese bar built around SM themes, typically with a show space and equipment for binding and suspension; such venues are part of the background of several kinbaku careers.
J-CAST News describes the typical SM bar as having a space for shows, devices for tying and suspending people and a range of SM equipment. Venues vary widely: the Hiroshima bar in its 2014 report was a light-hearted show pub whose manager said most guests came to watch and real enthusiasts stayed away. Time Out Tokyo’s 2019 nightlife guide features a Ginza fetish bar where guests talk openly with staff about fetishism.
Such bars recur in kinbaku biographies. AFP reports that Hajime Kinoko came to shibari while managing an S&M venue in Roppongi, and Osada Steve’s timeline lists a ten-month shibari training program he developed in 2007 for the staff of the SM bar Mode et Baroque.