Axel (Queerbaku)
Lyon shibari teacher and performer working as Queerbaku since 2017, who names Akechi Kanna and Akechi Kagura, Lief Bound and Icarus, and Ropemarks and Spring as his teachers and has led teaching at the queer collective Coven Cordes since 2020.
Axel is a shibari artist, teacher and performer in Lyon who works under the name Queerbaku, a blend of “queer” and “kinbaku”. His own site says he first took up rope in 2017 and in September of that year started a small discussion group under that name to pass his first knots on to friends; the name has since become the label for his teaching and performance work.
Training
According to his site, he trained by traveling to study with teachers abroad, and he names three pairs: Akechi Kanna and Akechi Kagura in Japan, Lief Bound and Icarus in the United States, and Ropemarks and Spring in the Netherlands.
Teaching
He met the Lyon queer rope collective Coven Cordes in 2020 and began teaching there. His site describes him as its head of teaching, responsible for designing the collective’s shibari classes and following how students progress.
Under his own name he offers private lessons of about two hours that range from a first introduction through floor ties and new harnesses to first steps into suspension; sessions of about an hour and a half for people who want to experience being tied, planned together with the participant and followed by a debrief; and semi-private classes for small groups of friends. He also holds a two-hour introduction in Lyon roughly once a month, covering types of rope, basic knots and essential safety before participants try their first ties. His site describes his teaching as gentle and unhurried, adjusted to each learner’s pace.
He has also taught abroad. In May 2025 he was one of four presenters at Thick Hitches, a three-day rope conference organized by the Berlin queer project Karada House for fat-identifying people and their tying partners, with a focus on Japanese-inspired rope. He gave two classes there: one on how beauty and ugliness are felt within rope sessions, and one on breath as a means of control, surrender and sensation. The Karada House listings describe him as a rigger and rope instructor whose approach to tying, movement and teaching has been shaped by his experience of teaching queer people, and who prefers slow-paced sessions exploring intimacy and torment.
Approach and performance
His site presents his rope as emotional, centered on sensuality and on the beauty that emerges from the practice. It describes his style as combining traditional Japanese technique with emotional fluidity, and as playing between tenderness and intensity. Alongside teaching he performs, and offers performances for festivals, stage shows and events.