Kanso

Kanso is a kinbaku artist, performer and educator whose organizer profile calls him Bay Area-based. In a 2014 Kinbaku Today interview, Kanso discussed teaching and performing with Blue and the creation of Bondage Erotique.

Background

His organizer profile says he first encountered Japanese rope bondage in 2006, at a stage performance in Japan. In a 2014 interview with Kinbaku Today he said that a kinbaku suspension show at a Tokyo club in 2006 convinced him to learn the art, and that he trained himself at first from Japanese videos, magazines and material found online. He credits training in martial arts and dance with helping his understanding of anatomy, tension and flow. In 2014, he named performances by Esinem and Riccardo Wildties as early inspiration and described a recent interest in late Showa-era kinbaku, including the work of Nureki Chimuo and its revival by Naka Akira.

Teaching and performance

The profile says he has both taught and performed at festivals, art spaces and kink gatherings throughout the U.S., and offers private sessions and lessons as well as group instruction around the Bay Area. In 2017 he started the Rope Circle, which he says aims to widen access to shibari education. In the interview he said that he and Blue were invited to take part as backup performers in Cirque Shibari, a show that Gorgone was producing, and that he had tied five models he had never rehearsed with at an event, which he used to illustrate the value of improvisation.

Approach

He told Kinbaku Today that his tying had moved toward semenawa, slower pacing, floor work and partial suspensions, and that he had begun suspending from a bamboo pole because it suits the classical style. He described kinbaku as a way to build connection and communication between partners. Asked for a favorite tie, he said he had none and mentioned the futomomo, which he said he had practiced in six to eight different forms over time.