Akechi Kanna 明智神凪

Akechi Kanna, known for most of a long career as Nawashi Kanna, is a Japanese rope artist and the present holder of the Akechi-ryū lineage. Kanna’s published profile gives Asakusa in Tokyo as the place of origin and Hamamatsu in Shizuoka Prefecture as the current base, with work in Tokyo and elsewhere in Japan.

With Akechi Denki

Both the lineage’s official page and Kanna’s profile date the start of study with Akechi Denki to 2000. Nawapedia places the meeting at Bug, a Tokyo bar where Kanna worked and soon held rope workshops, and records a joint performance with Akechi in 2002. The same year Kanna opened the bar Succubus in Ikebukuro, which Nawapedia says closed around 2005, and in 2003 wrote a series of “Kanna Style” tutorials for Mania Club magazine. Shibari Dojo counts Kanna and Raika as Akechi’s two senior students at his death in 2005.

Withdrawal and return

Nawapedia records that Kanna stopped working as a nawashi around 2007 and returned to rope in December 2010. Hajime Kinoko’s profile gives a slightly different picture: Kinoko took lessons from Kanna in 2008, and Kanna withdrew from the rope community the following year. After the return, Nawapedia lists the founding of Kannawa-kai in October 2011 and an apprenticeship of Yagami Ren that lasted from December 2011 to April 2013. Kinoko and Osada Steve both name Kanna among their teachers.

The Akechi name

On September 11, 2022, Akechi Denki’s birthday, Kanna formally took the name Akechi Kanna. The lineage page says Kanna at the same time succeeded to Akechi Kikaku, the company that manages Akechi Denki’s legacy and rights, and Kanna’s profile describes Kanna as its representative. Shibari Dojo reports an earlier ceremony in Tokyo in 2020, notes that the succession drew controversy, and points out that Akechi had never named a formal disciple.

Teaching

The lineage page uses the joint name Akechi-ryū / Kanna-ryū. It lists two instructors abroad authorized by Kanna, one in Australia linked to a certified studio in Adelaide and one in Ottawa, and describes an online subscription community alongside Kannawa-kai in Japan and abroad. Kanna’s profile adds kinbaku photo shoots, rope direction for film and video, live shows in Japan and members-only performances, and dates the growth of international shows and workshops in North America, Australia and Europe to 2014.

Workshop descriptions published by Karada House, where Kanna teaches with the long-time rope partner Akechi Kagura, present the style as very restrictive and aimed at complete control of the body. They tie it to semenawa and to ideas from hojōjutsu, and stress that every rope, placement and degree of tension should carry an intention the person tying controls. Nawapedia notes that Kanna is invested in the study of hojōjutsu and published a book of kinbaku poses in 2018.